900 homes across two skyscrapers are to be constructed in the area
It was only five years ago that the shopping centre in Elephant & Castle, home to many Latin American businesses and traders, was demolished, and now the area is set to undergo even more change as a new housing development has just been approved by Southwark Council.
The Borough Triangle Development will consist of 900 new homes (25% of which will be social rent homes) as part of The Berkeley Homes scheme. These will be spread across two blocks, one 44-storeys and the other 38-storeys high. The development will be taking the place of a large cluster of existing buildings, meaning that food market Mercato Metropolitano and the 100-year-old Institute of Optometry will be demolished to create space.
Mercato Metropolitano first opened on the site of a disused paper factory in Elephant & Castle in 2016 (it since expanded with sites in Mayfair and Canary Wharf), and was the first sustainable community market in London. It’s now home to an on-site microbrewery, 40 independent food and drink traders, and is a hub for community events.
As well as the new homes, the Borough Triangle Development will also include an office block, a flexible cafe and retail space, a new community centre, a new public piazza, and a temporary trading space where 12 of the market’s traders will be rehoused during construction. The rest of Mercato Metropolitano’s 40 traders will have to find somewhere else to operate until a new site is built, with Berkeley providing a £200,000 business relocation fund to support some of the 423 workers affected by the scheme.
The plans have proved to be controversial amongst locals, with the Save Borough Triangle Group citing a number of concerns, including the impact the scheme will have on Mercato’s traders, the extra pressure the development will put on local services, disruption caused by the construction, the loss of daylight the blocks will bring, and the lack of affordable family homes.
Construction on the development will begin in 2026 and be completed by 2034.
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For more information | boroughtriangle.com