London to get new ‘creative quarter’ in Greenwich

Urban developers Knight Dragon has announced that it is creating London’s first ever purpose-built district for the creative industries.

The Design District will be located in the heart of Greenwich Peninsula and will provide a permanent base for over 1,800 of London’s creatives in a range of architect-designed workspaces at affordable rents.

The move, which Knight Dragon states will create a “diverse and inclusive creative economy”, comes in response to the rising rents pricing artists, designers and small retailers out of Soho and Shoreditch.

The regeneration plan will see a complex of 16 custom-made buildings built next to the O2 Arena and North Greenwich tube station on the Greenwich peninsula that will create a wide range of workspaces for creatives from workshops to artists studios and flexible desk space.

Rents will average at 25 pounds per square foot and start from 10 pounds per square foot for workspace, ensuring that the creative quarter offers more affordable workspaces in the capital for the creative industries across design, art, technology, craft, music, food and digital.

Knight Dragon announce plans for ‘Design District’ in Greenwich

Richard Margree, chief executive of Knight Dragon, said: “Creativity is what drives forward any thriving city. The Peninsula presents a unique chance to create a new permanent district designed by creatives for creatives. At the very centre of this new community will be artists mixing with start-ups, mixing with independent market traders and design companies, large and small; everyone is welcome. We want a real mix of companies to come and to take over the place.”

The layout will see open workshops and studios set around a series of courtyards and a central public square, in a fully pedestrianised quarter with a transparent market hall at its centre. Visitors will also be able to explore “open house” workshops, rooftop terraces and basketball court and retail design studios with rotating work from the district on display.

Eight architects from across Europe have been selected to bring the plan to life, they are: Spanish practices Barozzi Veiga and SelgasCano; London’s Assemblage, Architecture 00, Adam Khan Architects, David Kohn and 6a Architects; and Cambridge-based Mole. Each practice has been given a pair of buildings to design independently and ‘blind’ from each other, with the aim of creating a “provocative diversity of colour and form” to give the development a varied look.

The move is part of an 8.4 billion pound redevelopment of Greenwich Peninsula, which over the coming years will provide 15,720 new homes in seven new neighbourhoods, making it London’s largest single regeneration project. The Design District is the next phase in Knight Dragon’s 20-year plan to “create a new piece of the city”, and it is hoped that the first tenants will move in by early 2020.

Image: courtesy of Knight Dragon