Shooters Lane Housing
Number/street name:
182-192 Shooters Hill Road
Address line 2:
City:
London
Postcode:
SE38RP
Architect:
Urban Mesh ltd
Architect contact number:
7905001885
Developer:
Urban Mesh ltd.
Planning Authority:
Royal Borough of Greenwich
Planning consultant:
Urban Mesh ltd
Planning Reference:
21/3591/F
Date of Completion:
Schedule of Accommodation:
8 x 2 bed houses
Tenure Mix:
Total number of homes:
Site size (hectares):
0.09
Net Density (homes per hectare):
88
Size of principal unit (sq m):
122
Smallest Unit (sq m):
122
Largest unit (sq m):
122
No of parking spaces:
8
Scheme PDF Download
Planning History
In 2006, when architects Urban Mesh first saw the Lane, living conditions for families accessing existing housing via the often flooded and litter strewn lane was unexpected and alarming. Urban Mesh worked with Greenwich Royal Borough and local stakeholders to assemble plots and derive a proposal of sufficient size to stand alone on the south side of the Lane. Finally in 2020, an unbroken block of the critical mass required by Greenwich was assembled and the planning process begun. Understandably - though unusually – once a scheme was finally submitted for Full Plans consent, letters of support heavily outnumbered objections.
The Design Process
Shooters Lane is a mud road. Most of us would not believe in 2022 London, that families are still having to access their homes through rubbish strewn dirt tracks.
The site at Shooters Lane lies on a brownfield site formed by an aggregation of ancillary plots to the Shooters Hill Shopping Parade. The wider area is low density 1930s suburban housing, typical of neighbourhoods explored by the Greater London Authority and partners in their pursuit of an intensified ‘Supurbia’.
This small area has long been in decline, accelerated by demographic changes to the tradition of shopkeeping that formed the Parade. Fragmented ownership has further prevented development of the abandoned rear plots and disuse has compounded occurrences of fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.
The proposal will provide 8 new well-designed homes. The development will enable the upgrading of the existing road and introduce new units that positively overlook the shared surface Lane. Furthermore, the proposals have been designed so that they fit other non-adjacent plots -establishing a design code that will enable their future development. This means that the remainder of the Lane will now be able to be completed in an ad hoc and organic way that would not have been possible without being unlocked by this seed development.
Urban Mesh are also keen to champion reduction in embodied carbon which is central to the challenge of meeting 2050 targets.As Whole Life Carbon Assessors, they were able to use assessments at Stage 3 design to help analyse carbon emission reductions. This is a process rarely carried at this early stage on small sites.
Urban Mesh acted on this project as architect/developers and are proud to have unlocked a small part of London that was too complex, too small, and too expensive to have been brought into use by conventional developers.
Key Features
- A tale of persistence, vision and of collaboration with stakeholders and Local Authorities.
- An unusual example of integral Whole Life Carbon planning on a small site
- A testament to how architects can - and do - work beyond their traditional professional role to bring about positive change.
- Innovative design on a challenging site.
- A case study in the intensification of outer London suburbs and the pursuit of ‘Supurbia’.
