Vision | Colechurch House

Colechurch House will be the new gateway to London Bridge.

A net-zero building and exemplar of Southwark as a destination for green businesses and culture.

It brings a major new public park to the South Bank and a new home for Southwark Playhouse to inspire the next generation of storytellers and theatre makers.

Creating real social impact, Colechurch House brings affordable workspace, useful, shops, a community-led programme of cultural events, hundreds of local jobs and a boost to the area's post-Covid recovery.

The latest addition to the scheme is a new minimalist footbridge from the station that will enhance the experience for station users and open up historic view to Southwark Cathedral.

Further information on our new footbridge can be found at the 'Downloads' section of the website.

Our contribution to Southwark includes:

1. A New Public Park For London

We want to lift the building so that it starts five storeys up into the air. This will create a grand civic space at the street level. We are designing this as a public park, which will be the focus for a curated events programme.

2. A New Theatre Space At Affordable Rent

Developed with Southwark Playhouse and integrated into our new park, this is an exciting new home for the theatre, bringing it back home to London Bridge where it began.

3. Redefining Sustainability

Our ambition is to redefine sustainability, with a strategy that brings embodied and operational carbon emissions to below the threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change (limiting temperature increase to less than 1.5°C).

Foster + Partners cares deeply about sustainable design and has a track record of delivering highly sustainable buildings.

4. Delivering Real Social Impact

Our strategy will be evidence-led, with an emerging focus on delivering good quality jobs, genuinely affordable workspace, new public open space, and useful shops for Southwark residents.

5. A New Footbridge

We want to replace the dark and uninviting footbridge with a new lightweight, minimalist footbridge for station users that will include a pair of escalators, staircase and accessible lift bringing people down into our new park on the north side of Duke Street Hill.

6. Clever Construction And Servicing

We know that this is a busy area and want to minimise our impact both during construction and when the building is up and running. As much of the building as possible will be pre-fabricated off site and delivered, reducing construction time on site.

In operation, we will look at ways to reduce the number of vehicles visiting the site, for example.

7. Developed in partnership with local people

We have worked closely with local people, organisations and businesses to create a scheme that delivers on your feedback.