Located between New Cross and Deptford Town Centre in South-East London, Faircharm Creative Quarter is a key project in an area designated as a focus for strategic regeneration by the local council. Restoring and remodeling a series of large industrial warehouses on Deptford Creek, the project creates a mixed-use neighbourhood of homes and creative workspaces that supports a local community of artists and makers.
Our renewal approach retains the industrial character of the existing buildings through careful refurbishment while sensitively integrating new buildings through a considered approach to composition, urban form and materials. Previously accessible only through a set of non-descript and anonymous entrances, the site has been opened-up, with two central routes running east-west and north-south introduced to link all buildings and forge a new public connection from Deptford High Street through to the creek edge.
Two retained warehouse buildings fronting Creekside Road are reconfigured and refurbished, creating a series of generous studio spaces, workshops and an extended café and gallery which is open to the wider community. Spacious open courtyards are embedded within the retained blocks to produce a succession of informal and active work/social spaces which also allow more light to enter the buildings.
Towards the water four new urban blocks ranging from 6 to 12-storeys in height create additional studio and gallery spaces at lower levels and residential accommodation above. Simple in form and materials, the buildings echo their industrial setting, with a palette of dark brickwork, robust concrete finishes and pre-weathered metal cladding. The tallest building visually marks the creek edge and adds to London’s mix of riverside architecture. Its chamfered corner responds to its specific position within the protected viewing corridor that extends from Blackheath to St Paul’s Cathedral in The City of London.
A set of legible spaces are formed between the retained buildings and new-build elements, which are designed to respect the urban grain of the historic creekside district with its network of courtyards and alleys. The landscape treatment has been specifically tailored to enhance the site’s biodiversity, with a seed mix of native planting specified by the local ecology centre with whom the design team collaborated.