For those of you new to the area, or those who are of a forgetful disposition as we are, you might not be aware that Tesco Kennington Lane will be closing forever in June. It will be replaced by a Tesco (probably the Metro variety) in the soon to vanish car park.
How can this be happening, you ask? Well several years ago Berkeley Homes purchased the Tesco site and the redundant gas holders behind it. After several years planning permission was granted for the construction of 728 new homes ranging from 4 to 17 stories, and 23, 000 sq. feet of commercial space. And taking a page out the King’s Cross book, one of the gas holders will have flats in it. The Lambeth planning application (great for insomniacs) indicates that this will take 30 months (a gentle way of saying 2.5 years) but the Berkeley homes website indicates ‘Phase 1’ will take 40 months.
Not to worry, dear reader, when all is said and done there will be a new all singing and dancing Tesco, and a pic of it is below. The footprint is slightly smaller than the old store, but according to a consultation I went to last year it will be better laid out. Precisely how Berkeley Homes know how Tesco will lay out its store I’m not exactly sure.
If you want to make yourself feel all warm inside about our neighbourhood, have a gander at the slightly fictionalised description of Kennington/Oval on the Berkeley Homes website . Oval Village beckons!
*Kennington Lane* station? That’s a new one. A secret stop on the Northern Line extension??!
Can’t wait for the new “Village”… maybe they will have a library (?) and “Re-purpose” workshop as suggested in their brochure, erm sorry, “Place-Making” literature. Or more chain cafes as per their latest artist’s impression. The original plan had a car-park, though I couldn’t figure out why. This is a particularly strange definition of “community” and “village” which I find irksome.
It will be interesting to see if the final build doesn’t exceed 17 storeys.
Just great , all London needs is more flats, needless to say overpriced tiny boxes with white kitchens and grey bedrooms . London for me is loosing it’s identity and character , Nine elms is virtually unrecognisable , most of the haunts i spent my youth in have been demolished, it really is all about the money .
There will also be an 18 storey building on the site where the smaller gasholders stand. Planning permissions were granted in the face of extensive local objections eg., about the density and height of buildings, restricted sunlight to public spaces, and the likely inability of trees and grass to grow due to overshadowing-despite the beautiful illustrations of green spaces. Sad that this “village” is anything but and threatens to overwhelm the existing neighbourhood.