Bell Phillips’ Southwark Park homes approved

Bell Phillips Architects has received planning permission for a part-three and part-six-storey residential building by Southwark Park in south LondonThe scheme will see the demolition of a disused two-storey, 1970s council housing office. The site is at 153-159 Abbeyfield Road, by Rotherhithe New Road and the southern tip of Southwark Park.The new building, which is being developed by Southwark Council, will provide 13 flats for social rent: three one-bedroom, three two-bedroom and seven three-bedroom. The building will have communal space with wooden play equipment to the rear, as well bike storage facilities.All of the homes are at least dual aspect, with all of the three-bedroom homes being triple-aspect. The flats also all have private balconies, with the three-bedroom homes having balconies larger than 10m2.Bell Phillips associate John Lineen said: ‘Materially and formally, the building mirrors the historic Mission House three doors to the east, with chamfered corners and details in glazed brick and terracotta pigmented concrete.’Planners at Southwark Council recommended the scheme for approval. They said the ‘chamfered plan form would ease the transition between the terrace to the west and Victorian buildings to the east’, adding that the building ‘sat well within the varied townscape and would not appear out of scale’.They also said the ‘use of the two colours of brickwork is a welcome contextual move, with the use of a multi-stock red to reflect the brickwork of the Pedworth Estate [opposite], and a yellow stock to reflect that of the adjacent Villas’.Councillors on Southwark Council’s Planning Sub-Committee B unanimously voted to approve the scheme at a meeting earlier this month.The scheme is part of a wider project that Bell Phillips is working on with Southwark Council, to deliver 51 flats for social rent across four brownfield sites in Bermondsey. The other sites are at Rotherhithe New Road and at St Saviour’s Estate, by Fendall Street and Maltby Street.Current site view: