Creating a new sense of place, delivering regeneration solutions and enhancing Catford's identity.
Studio Egret West has been the lead urban designers and landscape architects of the Catford Town Centre Masterplan project. Working on behalf of LB Lewisham, we have produced a framework plan for the town centre that establishes a vision for its future, as well as detailed masterplans for key regeneration sites that will act as the foundations for future detailed proposals.
Strategy
Catford evolved as a modest settlement at a cattle crossing point on the River Ravensbourne. Historically, this was a verdant place, with plenty of gardens, green open spaces and tree lined streets, alongside local shopping parades and an organic grid of low rise residential neighbourhoods. It was a cultural destination, and its many venues drew visitors from the wider South East London area. Over time, the special character of Catford has been lost to large scale redevelopment and domineering road infrastructure that undermines the town centre experience.
Our proposed method of revitalisation is to address some of Catford’s long-standing issues by reintroducing some of its long lost qualities – the verdant green, the varied grain, the network of streets, and the cultural/recreational draw – and merge them with a set of new and compelling ingredients that expand on and complement the existing town centre offer to create a new kind of energy altogether.
Specificity
The rerouting of the South Circular road, which currently traverses the town centre, unlocks the potential to create a consolidated and welcoming place at the heart of Catford. A new and extroverted civic campus, offering up a mix of cultural and leisure uses, is proposed next to the Grade II Listed Broadway Theatre, along with a diverse mix of town centre uses to revitalise the local high streets, meanwhile leisure and entrepreneurial spaces, a variety of workspaces, and upwards of 3,000 new homes, including affordable homes. The existing shopping centre and council estate will give way for a more permeable and granular town centre with the potential for a range of active uses at street level.
The ambition is for Catford to be one of the greenest town centres in London. A sequence of open spaces will be provided, that act as stepping stones between the stations area, the town centre and the new residential neighbourhoods – places to meet, pause, unwind and play. Native and functional landscapes will be established to create cleaner, healthier and a more sustainable place for the benefit of people, urban wildlife and ecology.
The framework has enabled LB Lewisham to secure over £50 million regeneration funding for Catford, earmarked for the delivery of key regeneration projects within the town centre, which includes the stations area, Catford Constitutional Club and phase 1 of the development.
Sustainability
The greening of the town centre will help cool the urban environment, improve air quality, reduce noise pollution and lessen the impact of traffic. Sustainable drainage systems will reduce the risk of flooding and provide resilience against climate change. Trees and soft landscapes will enhance biodiversity and provide new habitats for birds, insects and other species, supported by green stepping stones that connect the natural spaces around the town centre, including the unveiled and naturalised River Ravensbourne corridor and Ladywell Fields.
New and improved walking and cycling routes will weave and stitch into surrounding neighbourhoods. More safe crossings points on the South Circular will help Catford become more pedestrian-orientated, and a new network of lanes with improve the permeability across the town centre.
Awards
Team
