southern grove
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Issue 325 : Feb 2025

southern grove

SOUTHERN GROVE UNVEILS £55MILLION MIXED-USE STUDENT ACCOMMODATION SCHEME IN LONDON’S HACKNEY WICK

Developer Southern Grove Group today unveils a £55million mixed-use student accommodation scheme for London’s Hackney Wick that will help turn the area into one of the most vibrant off-campus communities in London.  The Broadwood Piano Works will create over 200 bedrooms on Fish Island with co-working facilities, a gym and space for pop-ups and creative workshops.  Southern Grove’s joint venture sister company, the PBSA specialist Future Generation, is already responsible for The Vogue, a 330-bed mixed-use student scheme which sits on the adjacent site. The Broadwood Piano Works will be built as a second phase and will complement The Vogue, creating a vibrant destination for students in a growing community within East London. The Vogue already has planning consent and is currently under construction.  The Broadwood Piano Works will seal the area’s future as the youthful, cosmopolitan beating heart of Hackney Wick’s cultural scene, and will be just a short stroll from at least five world-famous institutions.  The site, acquired this month, is less than five minutes’ walk from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP). Just the other side of the park is the University of East London (UEL) campus in Stratford, while Queen Mary University of London sits just to the south-west of Fish Island in Mile End. Even closer are Loughborough University London’s postgraduate campus and UCL’s East Campus, which are sited within the Olympic Park. That’s also where the London College of Fashion (University of the Arts London) will be moving. Its new campus, currently under development, will bring together its six existing sites in one place for the first time in its 120-year history. The Broadwood Piano Works has been designed by architects Henley Halebrown, who also designed The Vogue. It will incorporate 2,500 sqm of commercial space — meaning no loss of existing provision — and retain the heritage chimney and boiler house that formed part of the John Broadwood & Sons piano factory, which earlier occupied the site. Planning permission will be sought from the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). Development agent Tom Brain, of Hillstone Group, acted for Southern Grove in helping to obtain the site. Wider development is also being undertaken at scale locally. More than 1,800 new homes are planned for two new communities called East Wick and Sweetwater in the Olympic Park, alongside shops, schools and community facilities. The public realm around Hackney Wick station is also being regenerated, with the addition of nearly 200 new homes. Tom Slingsby, CEO of Southern Grove Group, commented: “Hackney Wick is one of the most rapidly regenerating areas of London, and The Vogue and The Broadwood Piano Works are very much going to be a part of that.  “The first and second phases will come together to create one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse communities of students in the capital, a melting pot of different disciplines and interests. The two schemes will provide a mix of uses to an area that represents one of the most vibrant growth opportunities in London, and one which will continue to attract high levels of investment like our own.  “We’ve enjoyed working closely with the LLDC. The phenomenal pace of the wider development that will take place in Hackney Wick over the next few years will also deliver residents and visitors fantastic opportunities. The whole area is being gradually transformed into one of the capital’s key destination districts through positive planning and superb architecture.”

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SOUTHERN GROVE UNVEILS £18MILLION SCHEME THAT WILL CREATE DOZENS OF FAMILY HOMES ON THE PICTURESQUE KENT COAST

The Willows near Whitstable will provide 54 family units The area is a prime example of a location that will see significant extra pressure on housing post-pandemic as millions choose to work mostly from home Covid-19 is fuelling a rapid expansion in the commuter belt, with workers willing to go further if travelling into London less frequently Developer Southern Grove has today unveiled a substantial £18million housing development that will create dozens of premium family homes on the beautiful Kent coast.  The Willows near Whitstable, will provide 42 houses, consisting of a mixture of semi-detached and detached family accommodation, as well as 12 apartments. Hundreds of thousands of Londonders have moved out of the capital in search of more space following the pandemic, repeated lockdowns and a shift towards remote working. The commuter belt will witness a rapid expansion as workers show a willingness to live further out if travelling into London less frequently.  Whitstable is a prime example of the type of community that will see increased demand for housing as that trend takes hold, leading to pressure on property prices. Whitstable & Swalecliffe railway station can deliver residents into London Victoria in as little as an hour and 25 minutes and there is easy access to the M25. The Willows, designed by On Architecture in Canterbury, will meet Southern Grove’s signature high standards for design and build quality. The scheme will be situated off Thanet Way, roughly halfway between Whitstable and popular Herne Bay, and only a 5-minute drive from the coast. It is adjacent to a much larger housing development that forms part of the area’s housing master plan. The Grasmere Gardens project, just south of the John Wilson Business Park, received planning approval for 300 homes in late 2019.  The Willows is already the second scheme announced by Southern Grove this year, after the company revealed plans to create a £7m development of mews houses on Powys Lane in Enfield, north London, at the start of the month.  Tom Slingsby, CEO of developer Southern Grove, commented: “Whitstable is a beautiful location on the Kent coast. With wonderful surroundings and less than an hour and half from London Victoria, this is exactly the kind of location that will benefit from a rise in demand for larger homes outside of London.  “Covid-19 has already been credited with fundamentally altering buyers’ working lifestyles and their property priorities. These shifts will have the power to improve local economies across the Home Counties. “At the same time, areas like this will need to keep up with demand in order to moderate house price increases but we know local authorities won’t just be focused on the numbers. Planning departments are going to be keeping an eagle eye on the quality as well as the numbers of new homes. We’re confident that The Willows will set a high bar for others to follow in terms of design and we look forward to bringing this opportunity forward.” 

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SOUTHERN GROVE UNVEILS £7M DEVELOPMENT OF FAMILY MEWS HOUSES IN LONDON’S ENFIELD

Powys Grove will replace a chain of disused garages in a popular residential area Southern Grove believes infill sites like this have the power to deliver huge numbers of family homes across London It comes little more than a month after the company revealed it had permission to create a similar scheme on another infill site in Finchley Developer Southern Grove has today unveiled a £7million project to create a series of mews houses in a popular residential area of north London. The scheme, called Powys Grove, will create nine family homes in the heart of Enfield.  The announcement comes just a month after the company revealed it had succeeded in winning planning approval for another development of mews houses on a similar infill site in Finchley. Powys Grove will be a continuation of Southern Grove’s determination to take full advantage of the huge stock of infill sites across London, which it believes have the power to provide a large proportion of the family housing that the capital needs. As the company enters 2021, it will be redoubling efforts to identify a large pipeline of suitable sites that fit this description.  Its latest terrace-style scheme will provide a single 2-bed house, seven 3-bed houses and one 4-bed property over three storeys, on a site currently occupied by a row of disused garages.  The development, designed by Dowen Farmer Architects, is located on Powys Lane. It is minutes away from Broomfield Park and has fantastic transport connections, with Arnos Grove Tube station and Bounds Green Tube station just 10 minutes away. James Burke at Colliers International is advising Southern Grove on this asset and others in the pipeline. In late November, Southern Grove won permission to create another £5.5m scheme of five mews houses, called Granville Mews, on another infill site in Finchley. The company began assessing the feasibility of developing infill sites across the capital last year, because they are so numerous and have the power to dramatically increase the stock of family housing in sought-after residential areas. They have historically been under-utilised by developers because of an industry bias towards projects that possess greater economies of scale, but that disadvantage can be more than offset by the speed at which infill sites can traverse the planning process.  Southern Grove will continue to expand the use of infill sites alongside its other large-scale residential developments of apartments, featuring hundreds of affordable homes.  Tom Slingsby, CEO of developer Southern Grove, commented: “There is high demand for family housing here. The infill site we have selected is a classic example of land that has sat poorly used for many years, ignored by developers who too often prefer larger, more generic sites.  “However, London needs housebuilders to be a bit more imaginative. If our approach is replicated at scale across London, thousands more family homes will spring up, dramatically increasing the pace of building. As an industry, we must make better use of infill sites, the transformation of which are usually very well received by planning departments and residents.  “We have another two infill sites in the pipeline and our eyes on many other opportunities that show similar potential. We’ll be making a number of further announcements this year.”

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