The Nine Elms area in Battersea, south-west London, has been given a double boost, with the wholesale market granted planning permission for a significant facelift, including the construction of 3,000 homes, and the transport secretary approving a £1bn connecting Underground line.
New Covent Garden Market, Britain’s biggest wholesale market, which has been central to fruit, vegetable and flower sales in the capital since 1974 and is owned by the taxpayer, is to be revamped in a 10-year project costing £2bn.
The market is part of a regeneration project for the area, which is just a couple of miles from the Houses of Parliament and Sloane Square. About 600 of the homes planned for the site, a fifth of the total, will be reserved for local Wandsworth residents to buy or rent through affordable housing schemes.
More than 500,000 square feet of market space will remain, along with a new food quarter designed to pull in visitors.
The remaining land will be used to build three tall residential towers, along with offices, shops, cafes, restaurants, a hotel and community facilities. Rooftop football pitches have been included in the plans. The flower market will make way for the three towers.
The fruit, vegetable and flower market, which opened when traders relocated from Covent Garden in central London, has 200 businesses employing more than 2,500 people.
The project is one of several building schemes in Nine Elms, on London’s south bank, which together will provide more than 20,000 homes, including 3,800 at Battersea power station. National Grid said this week it was to refurbish a nearby obsolete gasometer for accommodation. The new US embassy is also in the area.
A consortium composed of St Modwen Properties, the construction firm Vinci, and the Covent Garden Market Authority, will redevelop the 57-acre location. Work is expected to start next spring.
The Northern Line tube extension from Kennington to Battersea has also been given the go-ahead. Construction will start next spring and Transport for London expects the line to open by 2020. There will be two new stations: Nine Elms to the east, and a station close to the Battersea power station redevelopment. The cost, of up to £1bn, will be funded by developments in the area
