Policy information sourced from the Southwark Local Plan 2022
AV.04 Blackfriars Road Area Vision
Blackfriars Road is:
- Centred on a Georgian boulevard that is now a globally significant central London business district which is home to international business headquarters alongside small and medium enterprises;
- A place where people live, work and visit, linking to the many cultural facilities within Bankside, South Bank and Waterloo;
- A gateway into central London to the north and Elephant and Castle to the south;
- A safe, easy and enjoyable route for pedestrians and cyclists, with a segregated route for cyclists and where the demands of buses and freight are also well managed.
Development in Blackfriars Road should:
- Increase the number of homes, including social rented and intermediate homes;
- Provide new employment floorspace to meet a range of commercial needs including new offices and workspaces, hotels and shops;
- Provide new workspace, particularly flexible business space, cultural, leisure, arts, entertainment and community facilities;
- Protect and positively respond to the character and historic value of the surrounding residential areas;
- Contribute towards the development of the Low Line, a new public realm corridor adjacent to historic railway arches, with lively accessible spaces for creativity, new jobs and retail;
- Improve the look and feel of streets and public spaces, creating a strong identity for Blackfriars Road that is welcoming and memorable, and which sustains and enhances the historic environment. There will be a range of building heights along Blackfriars Road, with the tallest buildings clustered at the north end of the road, signifying its position in central London and a gateway to Southwark. There will also be taller buildings at the important locations of Southwark tube station and at the southern end of Blackfriars Road towards St George’s Circus;
- Provide more linkages and improvements to the streetscape including lighting, seating and greening, to make journeys both along and across the road and surrounding neighbourhoods safer and more enjoyable;
- Improve existing and create new cycle and walking routes, including the Thames Path;
- Improve existing open spaces, specifically Christ Church, Nelson Square and Paris Gardens.
Growth opportunities in Blackfriars Road:
- Blackfriars Road is part of central London and will provide many new homes, commercial spaces and other uses on major development sites as well as on smaller sites;
- The Blackfriars Road SPD was adopted in 2014 and identified 54 sites for development (and shared three of these sites with the Elephant and Castle SPD). The area has experienced significant change in recent years with the development of schemes such as One Blackfriars which has delivered 274 homes, retail space and a 161 room hotel. Most of the sites that were identified in the SPD have been developed with 869 homes, 8,600sqm retail floorspace, 75,000sqm employment floorspace and 5,000sqm of community uses including space for the London Centre of Contemporary Music. A further 99 homes, 600sqm retail floorspace, 6,400 employment floorspace and 8,500sqm of community uses are also approved or under construction;
- Blackfriars Road is part of the London Central Activities Zone, the Bankside, Borough and London Bridge Opportunity Area delivering 10,000 new jobs and the Bankside and Borough Town Centre. The site allocations will provide at least 195,000sqm (gross) offices and employment workspaces and 17,000sqm (gross) retail, community and leisure floorspace.
For more information please see the Southwark Local Plan 2022