Living in Elephant & Castle: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
The phenomenal transformation of Elephant & Castle in south London is right up there with the most challenging regeneration projects in the capital.
Billions of pounds are being spent in this Zone 1 district, which was best known in the past for its nightmare gyratory traffic system, gloomy pedestrian underpasses, the troubled Heygate Estate with its brutalist architecture and the Pink Elephant, the ugliest shopping centre in London.
Now the Heygate has gone, the map is being redrawn and the 15-year transformation of this hotspot in the borough of Southwark is well under way.
It includes 5,000 new homes, a new high street, a proper town centre and a landscaped new park — the largest in central London for 70 years — plus cultural venues, shops, offices, start-up zones for young businesses to thrive, and university buildings.
A figure of £3 billion has been put on the scheme, with development groups of every size working together. The giant roundabouts have been redesigned to make the area more pedestrian friendly and new homes are already for sale.
Central to the regeneration will be the replacement of the shopping centre, which in recent years has become home to a thriving community of South American and Caribbean market traders.
The shopping centre developer, Delancey, says it is in negotiations with Southwark Council about the amount of "affordable" retail space and hopes to resolve the issue soon.
Of course, every transformation has its detractors and the regeneration of Elephant and Castle has not been universally welcomed. Earlier this year Southwark’s leader Peter John, stung by criticism levelled at the council by the local campaign group for allegedly failing to provide enough homes for social rent, retaliated by claiming it was the fault of banks demanding up-front sales to investors before they would finance any large development.
Elephant & Castle is home to London South Bank University and London College of Communication, two of the capital’s foremost colleges. The latter, part of University of the Arts London, is due to get a new college building in the heart of the new town centre.
The Elephant, as the area is known locally, is south of the river, two miles from Trafalgar Square and south of Borough and Blackfriars, west of Bankside and Bermondsey, north of Walworth and Camberwell and east of Kennington.
Estate agent Dominic Foye, from local firm Gordon & Co, lives in the area and has worked there for seven years. He says these are exciting times for Elephant & Castle, which has a vibrant mix of cultures and boasts some hidden gems.
“People often arrive in my office 10 minutes early because they have failed to realise how central it is,” says Foye. “I can walk to work in five minutes and for City workers it is 20 minutes door to door on the Northern line.”
The property scene
Georgian and early Victorian terrace houses are found in West Square conservation area, where a pretty three-bedroom period cottage was recently marketed at £1.1 million.
More Victorian terraces are found around St John the Evangelist Church off Walworth Road, with historic tenement homes and workshops, plus new flats, on the Pullens Estate between Crampton Street and Penton Place. There is also a lot of social housing.
The Sixties Ernö Goldfinger-designed Alexander Fleming House was converted 20 years ago into more than 400 flats by St George and renamed Metro Central Heights, while developer Brookfield completed Strata SE1, a 43-storey tower with another 400 flats, eight years ago. Its three prominent wind turbines have earned it the nickname “the Electric Razor” and made it a local landmark.
New build
Lend Lease and Southwark council are behind £2 billion Elephant Park. A total of 3,000 homes will be built by 2025. The second phase, West Grove, is selling now with one-bedroom flats from £550,000, two-bedroom flats at £848,000, three-bedroom townhouses at £1,495,000 and four-bedroom townhouses at £1,695,000. See elephantpark.co.uk or call 020 3675 9955.
Two Fifty One Southwark Bridge Road is a 41-storey residential tower with 335 studios and flats from Oakmayne Properties, by architects Allies and Morrison. Prices from £685,000 (twofiftyonelondon.com).Blackfriars Circus is a Barratt Homes scheme of 336 studios and one- to three-bedroom flats in five buildings on the corner of St George’s Circus and Blackfriars Road.
Delphini apartments are ready to move into this winter, while homes in Conquest Tower are being sold off-plan, with one-bedroom flats from £790,000, two-bedroom flats at £899,995, three-bedroom flats at £1,145,000 and two-bedroom penthouses at £3 million. See barrattblackfriarsroad.com or call 020 3285 6655.
Affordable homes
The Levers in Walworth Road is a shared-ownership scheme of one- and two-bedroom flats by housing association Peabody. Prices range from £132,000 for a 30 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat with a market value of £440,000, to £171,000 for 30 per cent of a two-bedroom flat with a market value of £610,000. Call 020 7021 4842 for more details.
Launching soon is Notting Hill Housing association’s Manor Place development off Walworth Road, where there will be a selection of one-, two- and three-bedroom flats for shared ownership. Call 020 3815 1234.
Renting
Local estate agent Dominic Foye of Gordon & Co says there is a wide mix of tenants, everyone from students to professionals working in the City and the West End, to downsizers who want to be based centrally. “Tenants are impressed with the quality of the new-build flats — and anything above the sixth or seventh floors offers stupendous views.”
Elephant 1 in Elephant Road is a development of 374 new homes built for rent. These are available through Get Living London. A one-bedroom flat in Tantallon House is available for £410 a week, and a two-bedroom flat in Raglan House is priced at £490 a week.
Visit getlivinglondon.com or call 020 3944 0428.
Postcode
Elephant & Castle is in the SE1 central London postcode, straying into the SE11 Kennington and SE17 Walworth postcodes.
Best roads
West Square.
Up and coming
Dominic Foye says the whole of Elephant & Castle is up and coming. “More people are staying here because they realise how central it is and they see the potential for house price growth.”
Travel
On the Northern line Tube with trains to the City, Elephant & Castle is the last stop on the Bakerloo line, so there is always a seat in the morning rush hour to the West End. The train station has Thameslink services to Blackfriars, Farringdon and St Pancras.
Elephant & Castle must be in contention for the prize for the area with the greatest concentration of London bus routes — there are 29 services, including to King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Shoreditch, Tottenham Court Road, Holborn and Oxford Circus. An annual Zone 1 travelcard costs £1,296.
Council
Southwark council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for the 2017/2018 year is £1,256.82.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre was built in the Sixties and at the time was ground-breaking — reputed to be the first covered shopping mall in Europe. Now it is known as the shopping centre that time forgot although its outside area has a thriving community of market traders.
Inside there are branches of Tesco, WH Smith, Boots, Superdrug and Iceland. A newcomer is midcentury furniture and interior accessories shop Britain Can Make It, named after the 1946 design exhibition held at the V&A. There is a new branch of Sainsbury’s at Elephant 1 in New Kent Road.
The Artworks Elephant in Elephant Road is a boxpark constructed of shipping containers with food outlets on the ground floor and space for creative businesses on the upper floors. On the ground floor are Greek, Caribbean, Ethiopian and Cuban cafés.
A little French restaurant, The Frenchie, specialising in duck, and Marcel & Sons, a Mauritian café, stand out.
Huge Italian food market Mercato Metropolitano in Newington Causeway covers 45,000sq ft with food stalls and a large Italian supermarket on a temporary site that housing association Peabody is waiting to develop. Backyard Cinema is showing Christmas family films here at the Snow Kingdom until February 18.
Herbalist G Baldwin & Co has been in Walworth Road for 170 years. Nearby, co-working organisation Hotel Elephant is letting out smart new railway arches to start-up creative businesses in Spare Street, where independent Sidecar Coffee Bar has set up shop.
The Electric Elephant on the corner of Crampton Street and Iliffe Yard is a tucked-away café and gallery much loved by locals.
Open space
The nearest park, the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park behind the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth Road is a 15-acre local park with a children’s playground, a sports area and a Tibetan peace garden.
Burgess Park, between Walworth and Camberwell in Albany Road, is Southwark’s largest park. It reopened after an £8 million facelift in 2012.
There is a fishing lake, café, children’s playgrounds with water play in the summer, a series of world gardens around historic almshouses at Chumleigh Gardens, plus a sports area and two barbecue areas.
Leisure and the arts
The Ministry of Sound all-night club in Gaunt Street has been a fixture of London’s dance scene since 1991. Southwark Playhouse in Newington Causeway is a leading fringe theatre.
Siobhan Davies Dance in St George’s Road runs dance classes. The Castle Centre in St Gabriel Walk is a new council-owned £20 million leisure centre with a 25-metre swimming pool and a learner pool.
Schools
Primary schools
Most of Elephant & Castle’s state primary schools are rated “good” or “outstanding” by the Ofsted education watchdog. “Outstanding” are: Charles Dickens in Toulmin Street; St John’s Walworth CofE in Larcom Street, and Crampton in Iliffe Street.
Those with a “good” rating are: St Jude’s CofE in Colnbrook Street; Charlotte Sharman in St George’s Road; Victory in Elba Place, and Friars in Webber Street.
Comprehensive
Girls have a choice of two state comprehensive schools rated “outstanding”: Notre Dame RC (ages 11 to16) in St George’s Road and St Saviour’s & St Olave’s CofE (ages 11 to 18) in New Kent Road.
Oasis Academy South Bank (co-ed, ages 11 to 16) in Westminster Bridge Road is a Free School judged to be “outstanding”. Ark Globe Academy (co-ed, ages three to 18) in Harper Road is an all-through school with a “good” rating.
Higher education
King’s College London Mathematics School (co-ed, ages 16 to 18) in Kennington Road is a high-achieving selective science sixth form college rated “outstanding”. Morley College in Westminster Bridge Road is a popular adult education college.
Private
The nearest private primary school is the London Christian School (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Tabard Street.