Scaled-down plans for Peckham’s town centre have failed to win local campaigners’ support.
Following accusations that its initial plans for the Aylesham Centre were an “overdevelopment”, developer Berkeley Homes has returned with proposals featuring shorter buildings and fewer homes.
But local campaign group Aylesham Community Action (ACA) still says the “high-rise” scheme, with “minimal” green space, is wrong for Peckham.
Berkeley’s Rye Lane shopping centre redevelopment goes back to the drawing board
A spokesperson for the group wrote in a statement: “The ACA continues to question if this is the right type of development for Peckham.
“The new proposals are essentially the same as those rejected by thousands of local people over the last 10 years: the insertion of very large buildings into low-rise, historic Peckham, to create flats that will be unaffordable to most local people, with minimal green or open space.”
The Aylesham Centre has been primed for redevelopment ever since Tiger Developments and hedge fund Blackrock revealed their plans to build flats and shops on the site in 2016.
The site, bounded by Rye Lane and Peckham High Street, encompasses the Aylesham shopping centre and the Morrisons supermarket.
In July 2021, Blackrock sold the site to Berkeley whose plan, featuring 1,050 homes and fourteen blocks rising to 27-storeys, was branded a “citadel” that would “loom over historic Peckham”.
The developer’s revised scheme reduces the homes to circa 850 with 35 per cent affordable and blocks rising to a maximum 20-storeys – still significantly taller than anything else in the area.
ACA has long argued that Southwark Council’s designation of 850 homes for the site is too high.
The campaign group has highlighted numerous other concerns with the plans which it argues are “essentially the same” as previous proposals.
ACA also says there needs to be an assessment of the development’s impact on businesses catering to people on low income.
Berkeley says it is working with small enterprise charity Tree Shepherd to support local businesses.
ACA is also critical of Southwark Council for failing to come up with an all-encompassing “vision” for Peckham’s Town Centre which could have been a framework for Berkeley’s development.
Controversial Aylesham Centre plans send shockwaves through Peckham
But Berkeley insists it is focussing on the “identity and character of Peckham” to create a scheme that will “enhance the lives” of local people.
Its revised scheme includes Aylesham Gardens – a green space at the “heart of the development”.
Meanwhile, tall buildings will be positioned to limit visual obstruction and 41 per cent of the site will be designated as public space.
Berkeley has said the development would create internships, 60 apprenticeships and between 200 and 250 construction jobs.
Architects working on the development include dRMM, Dowen Farmer Architects and Feix&Merlin.
If planning permission is granted by Southwark, construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The first affordable homes would be delivered in 2029, the Ayehsam Centre would close in 2030, and the development practically complete by 2034.
The consultation is available here and open until Sunday, February 18.
Another gruesome Southwark Planning monstrosity after Canada Water and The Elephant. Tomorrow’s slums.