23 April 2016 – by Alexander Peace
When people first visit Canada Water, says Roger Madelin, the man heading British Land’s 46-acre dockside regeneration scheme, they say two things.
Firstly: “Blimey, it was easy to get here.”
Secondly: “Bloody hell, this is a bit of a desolate wasteland.”
Three months into his new job, the ex-Argent chief executive will be hoping to use the former to take care of the latter.
That, and a little bit of experience from King’s Cross, N1. Madelin, at Argent since 1987 and joint chief executive from 1997 to 2012, led the redevelopment of the 67 acres of mixed-use space following the firm’s selection by London and Continental Railways in 2001.
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British Land hired him to do the same thing in Canada Water, SE16.
“I don’t want to brag about King’s Cross,” he says, “but the public realm is more than half decent, and the buildings are more than half decent. There is still a long way to go… but it’s a successful part of central London.”
“If the transport was put on hold in 2004, goodness knows what it would look like. We probably would have done some residential on the northern land but it would still be underdeveloped to a large extent, and a wasteland,” he adds.
And if King’s Cross – a national and international rail interchange with six tube lines in Zone One – needed infrastructure, it is possible that developing Canada Water, in what could be described as the geographic armpit of London, could be problematic.
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