Plans for the redevelopment of Somerleyton Road which would have a significant effect on the Brixton skyline have been formally submitted to Lambeth council.
The development would be a partnership between the council and the construction firm Higgins with the company obtaining a 999-year lease on the site following a payment of £5m to the council.
It would see demolition of existing buildings on the west side of the road – opposite the Moorlands estate – and the creation of 378 new homes.
The partners say this will include 187 “affordable” homes and 63 “extra care” homes at “social” rent to support people at every stage of their lives.
The development would be “predominantly car free” with secure cycle parking.
The 378 homes would represent more than a quarter of the council’s annual target for creating new homes.
Other features would include:
- A repurposed gym – the Brixton Street Gym is currently based in the area due for redevelopment
- Community spaces that invest in Brixton’s existing cultural scene – the Brixton House theatre is next to the new development
- “Welcoming public areas” with safer, better-connected walking and cycling routes
- A new “community facility”
- Retail spaces that support local businesses and reflect the needs of the area.
“Significant ecological enhancement” of the site is promised.
Publication of the massive application, which currently consists of 154 separate documents, follows two rounds of public engagement and the work of a “community review panel”.
Lambeth council will run a statutory consultation on the scheme ending on Monday 2 June.
Comments can be submitted to the council’s clunky planning portal at planning.lambeth.gov.uk/online-applications, using the serial number 25/01377/RG4.
A project website at thisissomerleyton.co.uk will be kept up to date, the development project said.
The planning application seeks permission to erect five blocks ranging from four to 13 storeys high over two phases.
Before their demolition in the 1970s, the large houses on Somerleyton Road and neighbouring streets were the centre of the African-Caribbean community in Brixton.
Plans for the site have a long history. In 2018, Lambeth council rejected plans by the community organisation Brixton Green for redeveloping Somerleyton Road that had been in preparation for several years.
Brixton Green had received significant funding from the Greater London Authority and a quarter of a million pounds from the National Lottery to develop its ideas.
The council, however, after being aware of them for some time, said Brixton Green’s plans presented “significant legal and financial challenges”. The rejection came as the council began to promote its own housing delivery “vehicle” Homes for Lambeth, which is now being wound up following a report commissioned by the council that was critical of Homes for Lambeth and the council itself.
