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Architects: Squire and Partners
- Area: 68000 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:James Jones
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Manufacturers: Karcher Design, Hempel, Snaidero
Text description provided by the architects. Squire and Partners’ masterplan for One Tower Bridge on London’s South Bank is fully realised this month with the opening of The Ivy restaurant and the launch of the Bridge Theatre for the London Theatre Company.
The plan was conceived as a lasting new piece of the city which articulates the transition between More London’s contemporary architecture and the warehouse vernacular of Shad Thames, and respects its prominent riverside location on Potters Fields Park adjacent to the Grade I listed Tower Bridge.
Designs identified hotel and residential accommodation supported by significant cultural, leisure, restaurant and retail uses, as well as new landscaped public spaces at the centre of the development and pedestrian connections which visually and physically link Tower Bridge with Tooley Street.
Defining the edge of Potters Fields Park is Cambridge House, a low horizontal building clad in strips of Catalan Gris limestone, with a double height ground floor accessing the 6,870m2 cultural space for the London Theatre Company.
Sharing the same palette and set within a central landscaped courtyard is The Tower, a 20 storey slender ‘campanile’ offering one apartment per floor, topped by a glazed garden terrace. The Catalan Gris stone is offset with finely detailed bronze anodised windows and chamfered recesses.
Three apartment blocks with projecting stone balconies are positioned between landscaped gardens at the centre of the development. Two further buildings step down in scale towards Tower Bridge Road, constructed from London stock brick to relate to the adjacent Shad Thames. Interest is added with handset basketweave brickwork and a series of projecting timber balconies.
A new pedestrian route, Duchess Walk, has been created to maximise views through the site from Tooley Street to th esouth tower of Tower Bridge. This street is animated by shops, cafes as well as a spa and gymnasium.
