42-storey Elephant tower approved

The Multiplex tower

On Tuesday night Southwark Council approved two large developments at the Elephant and Castle which the council say will play a major role in the area's £1.5 billion regeneration.

Multiplex, in joint venture with Espalier, will create a 147-metre, 42 storey residential tower on the Castle House site at the top of Walworth Road with 30 per cent affordable housing. The scheme will integrate wind turbines to bring energy costs down by 40 per cent for each of the 408 apartments.

The Oakmayne development

Oakmayne Properties will develop a mixed-use development on Elephant Road with a 214 room hotel, five screen arts cinema, 219 homes, restaurants, and shops, spilling out on to a bustling market square. The scheme will offer new retail space for existing businesses trading at the Elephant.

Together the schemes represent about £200 million of investment into Southwark. Construction will start on both developments by the end of the year.

Castle House, which stands on the site to be occupied by the Multiplex tower

Oakmayne's 458,000 sq ft, £100 million mixed-use scheme, known as Oakmayne Plaza, will front onto Elephant Road and New Kent Road and will provide residential, retail, commercial, hotel and leisure facilities in three new 'landmark' towers, rising from 12 to 21 storeys, designed around a new plaza and a new "Covent Garden-style" market square complete with stalls for "boutique" retail traders.

The three towers are situated above a new retail and leisure shopping complex. The shopping and leisure complex will be situated over three floors and will be complete with a ground floor anchor outlet in the form of a city centre supermarket. The podium level will provide 6 shops, 4 restaurants and a five screen cinema. There is also a basement car park and service area.

The residential element of the project will provide a total of 219 studio, one and two bedroom newly built homes, including affordable flats.

The 21-storey tower, known as Oakmayne Tower, will overlook the railway station with 45,000 sq ft of offices and 88,500 sq ft of private and affordable residential space.

The 15 storey northern tower will front onto the New Kent Road and will house a new 214-room hotel. The third southern tower comprises 12 storeys of 46,000 sq ft of residential accommodation overlooking the new market square.

"This is an exciting time for the regeneration of Elephant and Castle," says Southwark's deputy leader Cllr Catherine Bowman. "80 per cent of our residents want this area to change for the better and we are delivering on our promise to provide quality architecture, new homes, new shops and leisure facilities. These two schemes play a vital role in the Elephant's transformation and demonstrate commercial confidence in the council's regeneration plans."

The regeneration of Elephant and Castle is due to be completed by 2014.