London Square, the new owner of Leegate, has launched a “consultation website” with information about its plans for the development. You can find it here: https://leegateregeneration.co.uk/
London Square has also confirmed it will be holding a one-day public exhibition about its plans on May 20th between 15 30 and 20 00.
It has written to 4,500 local homes and businesses inviting the local community to visit the exhibition at St Peter’s Church Hall on the corner of Eltham Road and Weigall Road.
The event will be attended by Michael Stanworth of Cavendish Consulting, London Square’s PR and Public Affairs advisors.
“Alongside myself, there will be representatives from London Square there as well as from the architects CZWG, the planning consultants Montagu Evans, and the transport consultant Cole Easdon,” said Stanworth in a letter to residents.”
“Our aim is to ensure that the consultation materials available at the event, which will also be available online from 20th May, address the questions you have put to us over the last few weeks. There will also be feedback forms at the exhibition. There is also an online feedback form on the consultation website.”
London Square, the new owners of Leegate, plan to add a further 80 homes to the development – an increase on the previously indicated 50 – taking the total to about 640. This will be achieved by adding to the heights of the planned blocks and removing non-Blue Badge parking, an online meeting with local residents’ groups was told.
The highly sensitive 15-storey corner block on the Lee Green crossroad will be increased by ‘half a storey’ while the two blocks immediately behind and attached to the corner tower will rise by two storeys. The two blocks on the south of site overlooking the central ‘street’ (the side adjacent to the old car-wash) will increase by one storey, London Square’s development director Ricardo Rossetti told the meeting.
At the same time London Square aims to increase the percentage of affordable homes to 44-46 per cent up from the 40 per cent it indicated to the Lee Manor Society in April. Under the previous owners of the Leegate site, Galliard Homes, the affordable share would have been 35 per cent.
“Because of the amount of affordable housing we have had to increase the heights,” said Vanessa Jones, senior development manager for London Square. “We are looking to sensibly reposition the heights.” The ‘half-storey’ increase in the height of the corner tower will be achieved by lowering the ceilings of some of the units.
Lee residents will have the opportunity to view and comment on the plans at an exhibition to be held in St Peter’s Church on the corner of Eltham and Weigall Roads on Tuesday, May 20 from 3.30pm-8pm.
London Square executives appear confident that the proposed changes that the company is seeking to the planning consent obtained by former owner Galliard in 2023 will not pose a problem. Lewisham council controversially refused to impose a recommended 12-storey limit on building at Leegate and other district centres because its revised Local Plan had at that stage not been given final mayoral approval.
London Square is working with Clarion Housing, managers of the neighbouring Leybridge Estate, on the design of the affordable housing that will situated in the block overlooking Leyland Road. Three-bedroom homes will replace previously planned two-bedroom units to accommodate larger families.
The timetable for demolition and construction remains roughly unchanged though several licences covering ecological matters and bats still have to be negotiated. Changes will be required to the planning consent gained in 2023 by former owner Galliard though London Square appears confident enough of approval to start demolition ‘in four to five weeks – early summer.’
Demolition work will take six months with the new build scheduled to start in early 2026. London Square confirmed that the only parking allowed will be for Blue Badge holders with spaces available for five per cent of residents of apartments designed for wheelchair access. It could not immediately say how many this would be.
The planned medical centre has been moved from the first floor in the corner block to the ground floor of Leyland Road block. However, there are concerns that the lack of parking and space for the disposal of medical waste, could make Leegate less attractive as a site for the centre.
Asked about the spread of graffiti on the hoardings around the site, Ms Jones said the company was aware of the problem and the temporary boards would be replaced shortly with London Square branded hoardings that are treated to resist graffiti.
London Square has yet to draw up a traffic management plan to control lorries removing the demolished concrete elements and delivering new materials to minimise disruption to traffic and inconvenience to residents. The plan would be submitted in advance of final planning permission. Dust created by demolition will be controlled by spraying. Any asbestos on the site would be removed under the tight controls that apply.
Former Lee Manor councillor Jim Mallory questioned whether Leegate’s unhappy recent history – its long decline and series of companies who have proposed and then failed to carry out redevelopment – meant London Square might want to rename the centre. This question was left open.
UPDATE: London Square has confirmed that its current plans are for blue badge only parking spaces at Leegate. The breakdown is 21 residential blue badge spaces and 1 commercial blue badge space.
Artist’s impression of Galliard’s proposed development
London Square, the new owners of Leegate, are aiming to increase the numbers of homes in the development, possibly by as many as 50. Currently there is planning consent for 562 homes, of which 389 would be private and 173 “affordable houses.”
In an exclusive briefing to the Lee Manor Society, London Square’s Development Director Ricardo Rossetti indicated his company is keen to raise the number of units to maximise the return on its investment,
“The advice I gave the board was that if we were to look at providing a much stronger affordable housing offer, there may be an opportunity to improve our returns,” he said.
The firm had originally asked him if he could add another 100 homes, Mr Rossetti told them that wouldn’t be possible, adding “If we are able to find 50, we would be doing well.”
London Square is hoping to increase the number of affordable homes from 35% of the total to somewhere between 38% and 41%. These would be a mixture of rentals and shared ownership. The advantage of increasing affordable homes is the generous grants on offer from the London Mayor. London Square has its own affordable housing arm, Square Roots, but is talking to the Clarion Housing Association which already operates in Lee.
The firm intends to achieve the increase by reducing the amount of commercial space in the development, and by adding extra storeys to the lower rise blocks. There is no plan at the moment to increase the height of the 15-storey tower block on the Lee Green crossroads, but they may remove the planned basement floor.
The other major change the firm envisages is the removal of the proposed first floor podium which would have provided upper storey flats with outside space. This would introduce natural light into an area originally allocated for parking, allowing for the inclusion of more homes. However, it will depend on successfully passing daylight tests.
Mr Rosetti confirmed the development will now have no allocation for parking, except disabled spaces, in line with Lewisham’s stated ambition to reduce traffic in the borough.
London Square wants to move the planned medical centre from the floor to the ground floor, in an area which would have been shops. This will free up first floor space for more homes. It isn’t clear yet what services would be provided in the medical centre; that will be decided by the NHS South East London Integrated Care Board.
London Square now envisages there will be a “basket” supermarket (i.e. for small shops) in the development. It is talking to Aldi and Lidl but so far has no deals in place.
However, it is going to have to amend Galliard’s original plans because of new legislation (post the Grenfell fire) which requires buildings higher than 18 metres to have two staircases. This will mean that the proposed supermarket area would have a staircase in the middle of its floorspace.
Mr Rosetti thinks that new problem, along with what he terms “planning fatigue” was responsible for Galliard pulling out of the development and selling to London Square.
“We’re spending time going back, reviewing their scheme, and trying to improve on what I think is actually a very good base. So now I have inherited this situation and obviously I’m approaching it with fresh eyes. We’re not trying to reopen the application in its entirety, but we would be looking to try and make the commercial units work a little bit harder.”
Current plans for Leegate.
The building schedule it envisages is to start with the South East situated Block B (on the plan it is on the Leyland Road corner). That would be followed by Block A (the 15-storey tower) and finally Block C (South West position) on Burnt Ash Road. They hope it will be all completed within between four and a half and six years. The price of the private housing is expected to be similar to London Square’s development in Woolwich., although at the moment there are no figures for that quoted on their website.
Mr Rosetti confirmed that the planned Community Centre would remain, alongside the ground floor medical centre, although moved to the south-east corner of the central public square in a slightly different position from the original plan. Their plans also include a pub, but it’s understood this is unlikely to be a Wetherspoons replacing the Edmund Halley. Wetherspoons closed it for commercial reasons, rather than because of the impending Leegate development. There will be a half basketball court on the south-east corner, but at the moment there is no proposal for a playground. A mural is planned near the public square
London Square aims to put up hoardings around Leegate within a month. It has started tendering for the demolition and asbestos removal, and is optimistic that work can start within six months and be completed by the end of this year. “In an ideal world, I will get planning consent completed just ahead of the demolition work finishing,” said Mr Rossetti. London Square has already had two preliminary meetings with Lewisham planners but there will need to be many more detailed negotiations.
The original architects Rolfe Judd have been replaced by CZWG. A full-scale public consultation will be held in May, including an exhibition and public meetings which may be held in Leegate itself if it is safe.
London Square has already started boarding up the site, and the graffiti artists weren’t far behind.
Great news! Lewisham Council’s grant to rescue the big flower bed at the north end of Manor House Gardens has got final approval from the Mayor and Cabinet.
The bid for the NCIL grant was made jointly by the Lee Manor Society and the Friends of Manor House Gardens.
Glendale, who will be doing the initial work, have produced some draft ideas for how the bed could be laid out. Discussions will be getting underway shortly.
Glendale’s draft ideas for the Big Bed Rescue
Once the work has been done, it will be up to volunteers to keep it maintained. Among others we will be relying on the brilliant support of the Lee Green WI team, who always turn up in force to help keep the Gardens looking so good. Here they are in action recently, clearing the bed next to the cafe.
