Leake Street Arches Waterloo, London
Creating a vibrant urban dining destination and multi-use areas for events, festivals and pop-up markets.
Completed in September 2017, this project sees the refurbishment of the arches and vaults beneath the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo Station. It aims to create a vibrant urban dining destination and multi-use areas for events, festivals and pop-up markets. A high-profile project located on the site of the famous Banksy graffiti tunnel, it involved working closely with local artists and community groups to ensure the scheme embraced the established urban culture and environment – while creating a new, aspirational restaurant, bar and cultural hub to spearhead the regeneration of the South Bank area.
The 8 restaurant and bar units total 25,000 sq. ft and have been designed to include external flexible spaces and seating areas – and to create new routes and connections. The new development works alongside the vibrant arts and music scene surrounding the site, including the House of Vans skatepark, a nightclub and artist studios. At the same time, it improves security, access and the public realm.
The scheme involved the excavation and removal of existing physical infrastructure to provide new, accessible routes through the site.
With our cultural-led ethos and approach of respecting the existing artists and unique urban setting within this edgy graffiti tunnel location, we created an enhanced sense of destination for Lambeth and London like no other. At the same time, the scheme also aimed to generate commercial value from the investments made.
The responsible letting strategy, taking a deliberate approach not to invite established high street multiples but instead targeting local and independent businesses in Lambeth, has given Leake Street an enhanced sense of character that builds on the area’s artistic cultural history.
Equally, we feel our grassroots engagement with the local community led to an innovative, bespoke and bottom-up approach to regeneration and placemaking in this valuable cultural location.
“Leake Street Arches project offers an exemplar of placemaking excellence, and is transforming a challenging inner city urban environment in Waterloo.”
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