The Doon Street site [adjacent to the National Theatre] has remained largely derelict for over 50 years. Now a partnership between Coin Street Community Builders, Greenwich Leisure and Rambert Dance Company is seeking planning consent for a mixed development which will transform the public realm and secure and sustain community facilities and programmes on a long term basis. The site is currently used for temporary car parking.
In addition to our general social, environmental and economic objectives, CSCB has agreed specific objectives for the Doon Street site:
- to create a new public swimming pool and indoor leisure centre to be owned by Coin Street Centre Trust and managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited as part of a network of new facilities to support the growing residential and working populations of this part of central London;
- to provide a site for Rambert Dance Company to locate its headquarters and three dance studios on London’s South Bank in return for providing an on-going dance education and training programme for the local community;
- to create sufficient funds to develop the site and to subsidise on-going revenue costs for the public swimming and indoor leisure facilities, local community programmes and Coin Street Community Builders’ responsibilities with respect to the public realm;
- to create a substantial increase in the residential population of the area to support the local economy;
- to provide commercial floorspace to enhance economic activity in the area;
- to create an attractive ‘gateway’ into the Coin Street site with significantly improved public realm, open space and active pedestrian frontages; and
to improve accessibility and connections to the various pedestrian routes that converge around the site including Waterloo Bridge, the ‘bullring’ and Upper Ground.
CSCB's proposals have evolved and have been refined over many years. They are based on needs and aspirations expressed in public meetings, surveys and consultations. They are strongly supported by planning policies at national, regional and borough levels. They seek to secure and sustain community facilities and programmes on a long term basis utilising social enterprise principles. They have been informed by careful study of the history and environment of the wider South Bank and they have been prepared using the skills of leading designers working to a brief prepared by those who will have long-term responsibility for managing and maintaining the facilities: CSCB, Greenwich Leisure and Rambert Dance Company.
Planning update: CSCB's proposals for the Doon Street site were set out in three complementary planning applications:
[1] an educational/office building with adjacent town square with connection to Waterloo bridge
[2] Rambert Dance Company headquarters and three dance studios
[3] 329 flats and a public swimming and indoor leisure centre
All three applications were approved by Lambeth Council in August 2007 and by the Mayor of London in September 2007. On 25 September 2007, the Secretary of State announced that Lambeth Council could issue consents for the proposals for the western half of the site (the Waterloo bridge end) but wished the application for the eastern end to come to her for decision after being examined in a public inquiry. The application "called in" for public inquiry is for 329 flats and a public swimming and indoor leisure centre. The leisure centre requires some £25million to build and £412,000 per annum on-going revenue subsidy. It will be owned by Coin Street Centre Trust (a charity) and operated by Greenwich Leisure (an I&P Act social enterprise). The commercial residential development would fund most of the capital cost and all of the on-going revenue subsidy required.
The public inquiry ended on 7 March 2008. A decision from the Secretary of State is expected in the summer. Follow the links below for the two press releases issued at the time of the inquiry, and full information of the proposals.