West Grove North

West Grove North, the second phase of Lendlease’s Elephant Park regeneration, is located on the junction of Walworth Road and Heygate Street in Elephant & Castle. Consisting of three buildings, the project contains 367 homes with a mix of different tenures, linked by a raised residential garden, with residential amenity and significant active frontage at ground floor. The main aim of the project brief was to re-connect the Walworth Road high street to the transport hub of Elephant and Castle with a high quality residential and retail offer, including a new affordable independent retail street parallel to Walworth Road. The Levy & Weymouth Building is a ten-storey mansion block containing homes of market and intermediate tenure. The building restores the first half of Sayer Street, a historic street in Elephant and Castle, a new local high street. The building has a distinctive terraced form, creating the feel of a traditional London street with expressive gables at either end of Sayer Street. The building is formed of a red brick grid with playfully arranged glazed terracotta infills, the colours gradate from buff to dark red, inspired by the local architectural materials. Sandow House, a ten-storey corner building on the prominent urban junction of Heygate Street and Walworth Road, has a 45 degrees chamfer to each corner, a move influenced by the desire to retain existing trees. It is clad in black brick with a mixture of rough and smooth facings arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Recessed brick adjacent to the windows alternate to create a woven effect to the facade. Sandow House is an affordable rented tenure building containing 44 homes, many of which are large three bed wheelchair accessible homes. Located on Walworth Road, the tower plays a key role as the tallest building on the masterplan, marking the entrance to Elephant Park. The plan is cruciform in shape delivering 100% dual aspect homes. The facade is constructed from unitised panels manufactured off-site and features deep fins of anodised aluminium creating an overall framework within which sit triangular profiled bronze panels. Horizontal bands are created at intermittent floors using the Fibonacci sequence to increase the horizontal density towards the base and extend the vertical rhythm towards the top of the tower. At the top of the building, the accommodation pulls away from the facade creating an open frame and pergola and a light crown. A lobby containing residential amenity space sits between Hurlock Heights and the Weymouth Building, including a 24-hour concierge, lounge, café and screening room with links to the garden space. Visible from the street, the entrance is enhanced by an artwork by Morag Myersough, produced by repurposing the timber felled as part of the development. Outline Planning consent for the Elephant Park masterplan was granted in 2013, and Reserved Matters approval for this second residential phase was secured in December 2014. The project was procured through a Design and Build contract and work began on site in February 2016 and was completed in August 2019.