{"id":501229,"date":"2025-10-15T10:31:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/501229\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:31:14","slug":"iconic-south-london-retail-destination-to-be-destroyed-for-1700-new-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/501229\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic South London Retail Destination To Be Destroyed For 1,700 New Homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewisham<\/a>\u2019s town centre will soon change forever, as the shopping centre built in the 1970s will be knocked down to make way for\u00a0thousands\u00a0of new homes.<\/p>\n

Major plans to demolish the legendary shopping centre and replace it with blocks of flats are set to be approved later this week. The developer,\u00a0Landsec Lewisham Limited,\u00a0has applied for permission to\u00a0bulldoze\u00a0the mall and multi-storey car park and build towers up to 35 storeys high in its place.\u00a0Currently, the shopping centre is home to\u00a0more than 65\u00a0outlets, including H&M, M&S and Boots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outlined in a 10-year plan, Landsec wants to build\u00a01,744 new homes, of which just 329 (19 percent) will be affordable. Out of the 329 affordable homes, 98 would be for social rent and 231 would be rented at discount rates or to key workers. The remainder\u00a0would\u00a0be privately rented.\u00a0The plans also include new student digs, which\u00a0would\u00a0house\u00a0661 students\u00a0in a 23-storey co-living block containing 445 homes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Landsec also plans to knock down the\u00a0Riverdale Hall Leisure Box, 72-82 Lewisham High Street (currently\u00a0a Boots) and the north eastern entrance to the shopping centre. Some shops along Lewisham high street would remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The developers have promised to build a new music venue and rooftop wild meadow, and have hinted at the return of the\u00a0Model Market food court which closed in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposals have received 784 responses from the public,\u00a0comprising 105 objections, 637\u00a0responses in support and 42 neutral comments. Opponents are demanding for at least 50 percent of the new homes to be genuinely affordable, while there are fears that the new blocks will contribute to gentrification.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lewisham People\u2019s Assembly has launched a petition<\/a> to stop the plans, which it called \u2018social cleansing\u2019 and \u2018a blueprint for gentrification that will displace our community, destroy a vital hub, and serve only the interests of corporate profit.\u2019 At the time of writing (October 15) the petition has around 1,300\u00a0signatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greenwich Council said: \u2018While the scheme would appear as part of a tall building cluster, it risks harming the open character of Blackheath and the setting of heritage assets. The report requests additional winter views to fully assess visibility and potential harm. Greenwich concludes that some harm would occur and asks Lewisham to weigh this against public benefits before making a decision.\u2019<\/p>\n

The London area that is most at risk of being abandoned due to flooding<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of London\u2019s best pubs is being reopened by one of Britain\u2019s greatest artists<\/a>.\u00a0
<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0<\/strong>follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up to our\u00a0<\/strong>free Time Out London newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewisham\u2019s town centre will soon change forever, as the shopping centre built in the 1970s will be knocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,57569,393,4884,257,57570,246,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-501229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-shopping","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news-shopping-style","14":"tag-shopping","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115377726035318621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}