CANADA WATER
I’m not sure I let Andrew [Catcheside] finish his question before I answered, ‘YES’. The offer of visiting Canada Water with a tour by Roger Madelin has been an intention of mine for some time, since I knew that he’d moved there from Argent‘s King Cross project.
My earliest memory of Roger is from early 2000’s - he is standing in the still-derelict goods yard, now Granary Square (probably in his cycling gear) showing us his handwritten and pages-long list of all the people that he had met over the course of the last year, who were living and working in the area, in a unique demonstration of one-man stakeholder engagement to get under the skin of the place (even though we (Fluid/Soundings) were appointed to do this on Argent’s behalf).
What followed over the course of the next decade was a carefully curated, place-based series of engagement, design and leasing decisions which slowly transformed Kings Cross into a new part of London. The first step was to put an art school and a set of jumping fountains at the heart of it all, which was not, it could be argued, a commercial decision for a first phase. But this was the game-changer that set the tone for the place-centred approach of what was to come. I could go on, but this is meant to be about British Land’s Canada Water, and my curiosity about what approach had been taken there - and I was not disappointed.
On the day, it turned out that Roger wasn’t there, but that was also a bonus as we got to meet two of his brilliant team, Mike Delfs and Freddie Broadhurst, who walked us though it all with deep enthusiasm for the whole scheme, which was infectious.
The scheme numbers and overview can be found here. Some highlights from me:
Watery Assets
What's striking from a masterplan perspective is the wealth of docks and river assets which the British Land team have to play seemingly all around, in a pleasantly disorientating way - plus a lack of underground or infrastructural abnormals like tunnels or contamination. Nonetheless, delivering anything in the current economic climate is incredibly challenging.
First, Leisure
The first phase of Canada Water includes the newly opened leisure centre in the ground floor and basement of an office block (Dock Shed), and like an iceberg, it is 90% underground, with massive, muscular, recycled steel trusses, that echo the industrial past and create spaces for the 25m pool and indoor sports courts. The quality of the spatial thinking and structural gymnastics, reflects what must have been a meaningful collaboration between British Land, their design team (Allies and Morrison) and Southwark Council, the operator. Lucky Southwark residents who get to have access to these world class facilities, and in doing so bring life and people into this renewed part of Southwark.
Actual Employment
Major regeneration schemes such as this should also ensure meaningful beneficial impact on the lives and outcomes of local people, and yet in so very many instances this is rarely delivered. Canada Water Connect partnership with ELBA (East London Business Alliance) seems genuinely impressive, by delivering in-house long term and impactful employment and skills. As we stood in the Leisure Centre Building we heard how 40 long-term unemployed people had worked on the building and were working permanently now.
Disco Po
Playfulness and delight runs through through so much of what we saw, not least bridge design: at the centre of at all a strategic route in the masterplan is delivered as an undulating red walkway spanning the dock, with a circular, littler pond-dipping sister - colloquially known as the ‘Disco Po’.
Electronic Culture
Thousands have visited Canada Water to dance in Broadwick Live’s Printworks, which for a few years was arguably London's greatest/biggest club, and which amazingly had nil noise complaints - thanks to the ex-industrial context. The 80’s warehouse building had been originally bought from Daily Mail, but now, following Printworks closure, is now a stripped back hulking skeleton that will eventually turn back into a cultural venue, run again by Broadwick and rooted in electronic music. I, for one, am very curious.
Interim Growing and Eating
Broadwick Live still have a pace in Canada Water on an interim basis through operating Corner Corner - a slick new food hall in a refurbished shopping centre, featuring a vertical farm selling leaves to restaurants. This is another interim use investment by Canada Water to kick start activation, and includes staff employed through Canada Water Connect, including a ‘Vertical Farm Manager’.
Meanwhile Gardens
The much-awarded Paper Garden is a collaboration between the inimitable Jan Kattein Architects, Global Generation and British Land, and didn’t disappoint. Jan Kattein described it as ‘the glue between established communities and new, and between nature and wildness in the city’. The success of this partnership, built on the amazing Skip Garden reclamation and nature project at Kings Cross. In the Paper Garden, the reclaimed materials were donated from diverse donors: Epping Forest, Network Rail and Velfac. Hopefully the Paper Garden will find a permanent home at Canada Water, and the meanwhile will turn into longwhile.
Freddie and Mike agreed they think they have the best jobs in the world, and that enthusiasm came across as genuine and deep. For the other partners who are in this for the long term, such as Broadwick and Jan Kattein, as well as hundreds others no doubt, it is clear the that the strength of the curatorial approach to place here is as much to do with trusted long term relationships as it is to do with smart arguments about the value of making early investments in the place. As a council officer I’m keen to hear about this partnership from a Southwark perspective, and will follow this Canada Water story with interest, and I expect, given the quality of placemaking and cultural offers here, I’ll be back as a London tourist.
