The design intent was to form an active, mixed-use hub, fully integrated with its neighbours and the wider Bermondsey community.

From the outset, the team saw the potential to improve the public realm – beyond the boundaries of the site. The factory had created an impenetrable urban block, KPF’s master plan incorporates a new network of linked routes, playgrounds, public roof gardens and community spaces, shared with immediate neighbours and connecting people across the Borough.

A pedestrian route links Bermondsey Tube station to the north with the shopping centre to the south. Routes are also opened up between existing housing to the west and Southwark Park to the east. The 400 car parking spaces currently on site will be removed, creating pedestrian-only routes.

The development also responds to Southwark’s vision for the Low Line, a route through the Borough, linking its diverse communities along the historic railway arches. Within the Bermondsey Project, an active ground floor celebrates the railway arches and has been designed to reinforce the community of each building, creating retail space that strengthens the surrounding retail environment – instead of replacing it.

An intense community outreach exercise ensured that local communities had a say in the development of the area, and resulted in a Planning Award for excellence in stakeholder engagement.

The master plan is a vision of humane density and an exercise in developing new urban typologies, to provide outstanding living space.

In contrast to the strict repetition of previous eras’ housing projects that border the site, a family of different buildings has been developed, including tall buildings, mansion blocks, and creatively re-used existing buildings. The former 1970s biscuit warehouse, the largest existing structure on the site, will be retained and transformed.

At the centre of the site, the tallest buildings have a subtle entasis, tapering towards the top, and growing out of an articulated base of a similar scale to the existing buildings. Each building or small group was seen as a mini-community with its own shared spaces, terraces, and a focus on encouraging interaction between residents.

The scheme’s materiality and detail aim to reinterpret and assemble aspects of historic Bermondsey within a robust, authentic modernism sensitive to the Victorian and 20th-century contexts. Patterns inspired by biscuit moulds are embossed on window reveals, celebrating the heritage of the site.