The 1.4 million sq ft, mixed-use Bankside Yards (centre) will feature 600 new apartments, 350,000 sq ft of commercial space, as well as new public amenities and retail spaces. (Picture: Native Land)
Bankside Yards is the most ambitious mixed-use project in Central London, and it is gearing up for its maiden international residential sales launch in 4Q2024. The 1.4 million sq ft redevelopment project comprises an octet of buildings that will feature 600 new residences, a five-star hotel, Grade-A commercial buildings, and 50,000 sq ft of retail and community-centric spaces.
“There is little or no competing new development available in Central London, given the capital’s planning challenges,” says Alasdair Nicholls, CEO of Native Land. “Bankside Yards, therefore, represents a unique proposition for next-generation city centre living and working, and is one of the most exciting regeneration projects to hit the UK in years.”
The redevelopment project is backed by an international consortium of developers and investors — Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, mainboard-listed hospitality group Hotel Properties, Malaysian developer Amcorp Properties and UK developer Native Land.
Read also: Chris Fossick steps down from role as JLL Southeast Asia CEO
Opening the riverfront will finally allow members of the public to move effortlessly along the Thames Path between the Tate Modern and The Royal Festival Hall, says Polisano. (Picture: Native Land)
Headlining as the master planner is London-based architectural firm PLP Architecture, whose recent projects in London include 22 Bishopsgate and One Bishopsgate Plaza. Its international portfolio is diverse, ranging from the ultra-luxury residential project Park Nova to the redevelopment of the Clifford Centre office tower in Singapore, a new district redevelopment at Tokyo Cross Park Vision, and the design of the Korean National Meteorological Centre, a net-zero building.
The design team for Bankside Yards is bolstered by other leading architects and urban planners, including Make, Stiff + Trevillion, and Gillespies.
Bankside Yards will be the first major mixed-use development in the UK to achieve net-zero emissions, by relying on renewable energy resources.
Bankside Yards is in London’s Southwark borough, next to the southern end of London Blackfriars station. The site incorporates 14 historical railway arches that have been closed to public access for the past 150 years. It is in a prime central location close to some of London’s cultural landmarks, such as the iconic Tate Modern gallery, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Southbank Centre.
“We saw a unique opportunity to revitalise this part of London’s South Bank and envisage Bankside Yards as the gateway development that will draw more residents, office workers and visitors into the rest of the borough,” says Nicholas Gray, sales and marketing director at Native Land.
Access to Blackfriars station will enhance transport connectivity for residents and visitors at Bankside Yards. (Picture: Native Land)
From its conception, Bankside Yards was envisioned as an example of “future mixed-use regeneration schemes that prioritise hyper-connectivity, hyper-mixed use, and a new generation of sustainability and energy efficiency infrastructure”, adds Gray.
Read also: St James Quarter in Edinburgh to launch in Singapore on Oct 3 weekend
Lee Polisano, president of PLP Architecture, says the project is surrounded by a number of the capital’s most notable cultural institutions. Bankside Yards will also “finally allow members of the public to move effortlessly along the Thames Path between the Tate Modern and The Royal Festival Hall, acting as a pivotal link in the city’s cultural trail”, he adds.
Moreover, the pipeline of new residential developments in Central London is at its lowest point since the end of the pandemic, with record low levels of government approvals for new construction and planning consent across the spectrum of residential and commercial zones, says Gray.
The redevelopment of the 1.4 million sq ft, mixed-use site has been a 12-year journey for the international consortium, which acquired the site for GBP308 million in 2012. Bankside Yards is projected to have a total development value of GBP2.5 billion ($4.2 billion) when completed.
The first residential building that will be launched at Bankside Yards is the 249-unit Opus. The 50-storey residential tower will be the tallest in Central London when completed in 2026.
About 3.5 acres (1.4ha) will be set aside as public spaces, and at least five of them will be public access parks. The southern entrance of Blackfriars station will also be incorporated into Bankside Yards along the riverfront.
The 14 historical railway arches will be prominent public fixtures when restored. (Picture: Native Land)
Victorian-era railway arches will be the main feature among 50,000 sq ft of amenities, dining, retail and cultural spaces within Bankside Yards. “Of the 14 arches, we have restored the seven west-facing arches and will begin restoration works on the remaining seven east-facing arches,” says Gray.
The arches used to house the former Blackfriars Bridge station when it opened in 1864. The station comprised two levels, with a goods depot at street level and passenger facilities above it. Remnants of the former station remain, such as the lift shafts that would have elevated trains onto the raised railway tracks.
“We want to embrace the history of this site and the prominent history of these railway arches to ground the heritage of this area,” says Gray. He adds that the spaces within the arches will be converted into a mix of public-access retail, dining and cultural zones.
There will also be spaces set aside for residents’ amenities and they might be open for public membership in the future, he says. Amenities include a padel court, a gym, an indoor pool and a spa.
The first development phase of Bankside Yards consists of three buildings — a 19-storey, 223,000 sq ft office building called Arbor; the 249-unit Opus; and an upcoming mixed-use building on the riverfront.
The Arbor is particularly noteworthy because it was completed last July and is an early showcase of the sustainability standards and fifth-generation energy-efficiency network that the developers have promised at Bankside Yards. The energy network is the largest of its kind in the UK and will enable thermal energy to be shared between buildings, allowing cooler buildings to extract heat from warmer buildings on site. It will connect all the residential buildings, the hotel, commercial buildings, and retail and amenity zones.
“Sustainability and energy efficiency are core tenets of Bankside Yards’ master plan,” says Gray. “We have been able to accomplish this level of energy efficiency due to the scale of this redevelopment and the number of buildings on site.”
Arbor is a 19-storey office building - the first to be completed at Bankside Yards. (Picture: Native Land)
The promise of this fifth-generation energy system has attracted major tenants such as The Carbon Trust, a UK-based consultancy that specialises in accelerating the pace of private-sector decarbonisation and energy efficiency in the UK. The consultancy signed a 10-year lease to move its headquarters in Arbor.
Other major tenants at Arbor include FTSE-listed engineering giant Smiths, which will occupy 13,600 sq ft; and Merlin Entertainment, which will take up 13,500 sq ft. According to Gray, the commercial building has a typical floor plate of about 13,000 sq ft and is about 70% leased to date.
“Commercial tenants have placed sustainability and energy efficiency high on their agenda and are among the top priorities of their corporate real estate strategies. We’ve anticipated this and delivered a market-leading product like Arbor,” says Gray.
Opus will be the next building set for completion at Bankside Yards. The 50-storey residential tower will house 249 apartments featuring a mix of one- to four-bedroom units and three penthouses.
Native Land will release the units in phases, in tandem with the phased completion of the 50-storey tower.
The project will be launched in the UK and key international markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and East Asia. The key cities where it will be launched include London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha.
Gray believes there will be a variety of buyers attracted to the Opus. “We are always surprised by the demographic of buyers who pick up premium residential apartments in Central London,” he says.
Gray: We saw a unique opportunity to revitalise this part of London’s South Bank and envisage Bankside Yards as that gateway development. (Picture: Native Land)
Working professionals in Central London will find the attributes such as the convenience of its central location and accessibility to transport hubs to be appealing pull factors, Gray says. He adds that they also expect demand from people looking for a city home, those who often commute between the city and their primary residence outside of London.
“We have also seen healthy demand from an older demographic of buyers. These are often mature professionals who had aspirations to buy a city apartment when they were in their 30s and 40s, but family life or budget constraints might have gotten in the way,” says Gray. “Many are at the tail end of their careers, sometimes empty-nesters, and they are moving in from outside London.”
Increasingly, sustainability and energy efficiency are important considerations among London buyers, says Gray. “They may not initially ask for it, but when it is brought up, they respond very positively.”
Last year, Mandarin Oriental announced that it will be opening its third Mandarin Oriental hotel in London at Bankside Yards. Construction of the upcoming 153-room Mandarin Oriental Bankside will start next year, and is expected to be completed in 2028.
Besides the glamour of an internationally renowned five-star hotel brand, Mandarin Oriental Bankside will include 70 branded residences. Native Land says these residences will be the first new super-prime luxury residential offering in Central London in recent years.
Adding to the residential offering at Bankside Yards will be a low-rise, 74-unit apartment block (named Building 4) beside Mandarin Oriental Bankside. The developer plans to directly connect Building 4 to the front-of-house and back-of-house services at the hotel via an underground link.
In addition to the 153 hotel rooms at Mandarin Oriental Bankside, the hotel will serve 70 luxury branded residences. (Picture: Native Land)
“We envision the possibility of extending hospitality services offered by the Mandarin Oriental Bankside to the residents of this apartment block due to the direct links between the hotel and this apartment building,” says Gray. The concept is still being finalised.
Other Bankside Yards buildings in the pipeline include an 80,632 sq ft, riverfront commercial building that features a typical 5,000 sq ft floorplate. This will be designed by architectural firm Make and will sit at the doorstep of the southern entrance to Blackfriars station.
“A lot of effort has been put into the master planning of Bankside Yards to emphasise the sense of place and the hyper-connectivity throughout the entire mixed-use site,” says Gray. “We’ve especially put a lot of emphasis on the design and layout of our public realm using inclusive landscaping and greening.”
In terms of office spaces, there will be efficiently-sized office floor plates of about 5,000 sq ft offered at an upcoming riverfront mixed-use building, named Building 1 at the moment, as well as larger floor-plate sizes of 13,000 sq ft for corporate tenants in Arbor.
Most of the future buildings further from the riverfront and fronting Southwark Street will feature efficiently-sized apartments and commercial spaces. It will inject a wider variety of residential and commercial spaces that appeal to different groups of buyers and tenants with a wide range of budget needs, adds Gray.