Carlyle reveals a £1bn revamp for Blackfriars
THE CARLYLE Group revealed yesterday it is to submit plans this week for the giant £1bn regeneration of London’s South Bank between Blackfriars Bridge and the Tate Modern.
The nine-building scheme will create 1.4m square feet of space including 494 homes, shops and 450,000 sq ft of offices and will also open Blackfriars’ railway viaducts to create a thoroughfare along the river.
The tallest of the buildings will be a 48-storey residential skyscraper that will stand at the foot of the bridge opposite One Blackfriars, which is being built by Berkeley Homes.
The US private equity giant said the two towers will form a “gateway”, connecting the City and Southwark.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to truly regenerate and reinvigorate a large, important and extremely well located but under-utilised site right on the River Thames,” Mark Harris, Carlyle managing director at Carlyle said.
The scheme, designed by PLP Architecture, will also see parts of the Upper Ground thoroughfare reopen for the first time in 150 years.
The site is currently occupied by Ludgate House, the headquarters of publishing group UBM, and Sampson House, which will become vacant in 2015 and 2018.
Three of the new buildings will sit on the western side of the site, where Ludgate House office stands, with the rest on the eastern side.
Carlyle said the project, which is due to complete between 2020 and 2023, would almost double the number of permanent jobs in the area to over 3,700 and deliver 35,000 sq ft of public space.