Place making at Elephant & Castle

Developer Lendlease has partnered with Southwark Borough Council to regenerate the Heygate Estate and two other sites at the Elephant & Castle and create a new sustainable community. Al Beevers explains the vision and the safety challenges.Lendlease is no stranger to large urban regeneration projects. In its native Australia, the developer has partnered with the New South Wales government to create what it claims will be the country’s first carbon positive community at Barangaroo in Sydney.Its first foray into the UK market was the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent but more recently Lendlease has been the mastermind behind the International Quarter in Stratford, East London – the UK’s largest new commercial development.However, it is Lendlease’s role as a key developer in the regeneration of the Elephant & Castle, once dubbed the ‘Piccadilly (Circus) of South London’ before the Blitz blew away much of its history, which is arguably the most heralded.Dominated by the former Brutalist Heygate Estate and its iconic, yet deeply flawed, shopping centre, Europe’s first covered shopping mall when it opened in 1965, the Elephant & Castle has suffered from decades of decline despite its close proximity to central London.While the developer Delancey plans to redevelop the shopping centre and construction cranes from other firms can be seen in the locality, Lendlease’s track record in urban regeneration helped it secure the contract from Southwark Borough Council in 2010 to redevelop 28 acres of land across three sites.