ARCHI./MY PROJECT2010. 3. 5. 22:24

Urban Regeneration Case Study: Bankside, London


China Wharf (1982-1988)



The Circle (1987-1988)


Bankside Lofts (1996-1998)





Butler’s Wharf warehouse (1900s)


Design Museum (1987-1989)


Bermondsey Wall West (2001-2005)


Bankside extends along south bank of the Thames in London. It is thought of as one of Britain’s most dynamic and successful urban regeneration. It used to be a busy port with lots of warehouses and docks nearly two hundreds years ago and in nowadays it has been regenerated for residential, commercial and exhibitory use.

Bankside is the core of Southwark, closed to Tower Bridge, which has developed as a suburb of London in Roman times. With the development of commerce between 1800s and 1920s, Southwark became center for the import of timber. And the population in these areas grew from around 100,000 in 1801 to nearly 240,000 a century later. But from the mid-1960s, the rapid closure of London’s docks affected these areas heavily. Staggering 150,000 jobs were lost over little more than a decade, and this was followed by the steady decline of traditional industries-many of them linked to the import trade. As a result of this process, many warehouses and docks became useless and began to be discarded.

Old Uses: ports, warehouses, residence, restaurants, clubs, cafes, offices,
New Uses: wharf, docklands and factory museum, parking, studios, workshops and retail

In 1982, consent was given after a public inquiry. A very fine warehouse of the 1880s was demolished and other warehouses were torn down with indecent haste. Big developers, backed by financial institutions and experienced in large-scale new-build projects, saw little prospect of profit in conversion schemes. Against these activities, some pioneer architects and some entrepreneurs seized the opportunity offered by convertible old buildings. Piers Gough was brought in by Andrew Wadsworth to design China Wharf (1982-1988)- a building converted from an old warehouse named Reed’s ‘A’ Wharf, abutting New Concordia Wharf. It then used as apartments. Nevertheless it still preserves some historic features such as dockland silos. Pies Gough himself described it “part boat, part pagoda, and very red.” It was considered as a successful evidence for the regeneration and reuse of old warehouses. (CZWG Architect,)

As the old industries continued to fade away, a steady supply of convertible buildings became available. Followed this early attempt, CZWG architects rebuilt some new buildings and mixed it with the old, such as The Circle (1987-1988) and Bankside Lofts (1996-1998). New buildings combined organically with the old buildings and regenerated them. Meanwhile, the basic function of these areas became from ports to communities. The old warehouses were replaced by lofts, restaurants and bars.

Besides the methods of conversion, architects inherited a lot of elements from the old buildings when they designed new ones to replace the old buildings on the same site. For instance, Conran Roche, along with Michaels Hopkins, finished Design Museum (1987-1989), providing a striking contrast to the massive brick facades of Butler’s Wharf warehouse (1900s). But the scale of old buildings was preserved while it was dismantled. It reflected the respects to the history and culture in old Banksides.

Wartime bombing and post-war clearances destroyed parts of the nineteenth-century warehouse and left some empty space among Bankside area. Architects filled up these spaces with new buildings that related with former surroundings. Bermondsey Wall West (2001-2005) was such example. It stood near riverside, neck and neck with a ruined nineteenth-century warehouse. It retained with the neighboring building in scale and basic form.

At the beginning of twenty-first century Bankside is certainly vigorous and varied, its social and economic renaissance reflected in some of London’s best new architecture. More significant, than the high quality of new buildings, is the way in which the architects regenerate old blocks and convert former buildings.


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