What we delivered

  • Three hectares of new and improved public realm and streetscape in Bermondsey, South London

  • An ‘urban greening’ approach to landscape architecture, with more than 140 new trees planted and a 28% increase in tree-canopy coverage

  • Pedestrian-oriented streetscapes with new walking pathways and related lighting, street furniture and other amenities

Services used
Civil engineering / Environmental consulting / Landscape architecture

Get in touch with our team

The Bermondsey Project is one of London’s largest built-to-rent developments, located on a 5.4 ha brownfield site. The project aims to revitalise its South London neighbourhood and re-establish the area as an economic hub while preserving the distinctive industrial heritage and character of Bermondsey.

Grosvenor commissioned Arup’s landscape architects to develop landscape strategies and to design streetscapes within the development. We were also appointed to advise on technical requirements to meet the previous Draft New London planning policies relating to urban greening and play.

We worked to enhance connectivity within the site, concentrating on making a more livable place for residents old and new. Our landscape architects and infrastructure engineers followed the Healthy Streets Agenda and created routes emphasising walking and other active travel as well as urban greening, with new trees, plants, street furniture and lighting, while preserving the existing tree network. And we strove to keep Bermondsey’s industrial heritage and character both visible and tangible, in the design from the cobblestones to the surrounding spaces.

The new environment landscape strategies and streetscape design helped create a dynamic and sustainable neighbourhood. The masterplan delivers more than 1,500 new Private Rented Sector (PRS) homes, a new school, and public realm, which incorporates child-friendly interventions to ensure the area is safe and inclusive for everyone. The site opens up a new, green Bermondsey to its people, making a more desirable location to live, work and play.

Enhancing the landscape

We worked closely with our infrastructure engineers to ensure the existing and proposed utilities and requirements for the landscape concept proposals were robust and functional for the public realm. Underpinned by the Healthy Streets agenda, which focuses on people and their health as central to design, our streetscape proposals ensure a series of inclusive pedestrian priority routes to promote and encourage active travel across the site.

The carefully selected palette of trees, plants, street furniture and lighting were designed to enhance the character of the different spaces within the neighbourhood and to reflect Bermondsey’s rich industrial heritage. These green interventions will provide at least 22,000m2 of greening at ground and roof levels - 41% of the entire site, in the form of rain gardens, mixed shrub and perennial planting beds, tree planting, vertical greening, amenity lawns and intensive, extensive and biodiverse roofs.

This significant increase in greening will create a network of green corridors and provide benefits, including enhancing local biodiversity and minimising heat concentration within the development, also known as the urban heat island effect. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in the form of rain gardens will help manage storm water runoff whilst providing an attractive green backdrop and valuable contact with nature. These interventions met Grosvenor’s sustainability targets and exceeded those within the 2019 Draft new London Plan, demonstrating a resilient approach to the design of the public spaces while responding to the challenges of climate change.

Render of a neighbourhood development in Bermondsey

We developed a series of pedestrian priority routes to stitch the new neighbourhood into its surroundings. © Plompmoses/KPF

Render of children playing and pedestrians walking through a neighbourhood

Our streetscape proposals ensure a series of inclusive pedestrian priority routes to promote and encourage active travel across the site

Partners & collaborators

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) / Landscape Designer: Andy Sturgeon Design to RIBA Stage 2 / Structural Engineers: WSP and AKTII / MEP Engineers: Hilson Moran / Transport Planners: WSP / Sustainability Consultants: TfT / Project Managers: Gardiner and Theobald / Planning Consultants: Gerald Eve / Cost Consultants: Cumming Group