• Elephant and Castle - A History of Change
• Elephant and Castle presentation 2007
• Elephant and Castle Today
• Shopping
• Leisure and Culture
• Education, Training and Employment

Introduction

The redevelopment of Elephant and Castle is an ambitious programme of change that will culminate in one of the largest regeneration programmes ever seen in Europe.

The £1.5 billion, 170-acre programme includes the creation of a new pedestrianised town centre, market square, green spaces and thousands of new homes and jobs.

Southwark Council is leading this programme so that by 2014, local people can benefit from a dramatically improved physical environment with tree lined streets, high quality open spaces and a largely traffic free environment. They will also enjoy access to more local jobs and training opportunities, and new cultural and leisure facilities such as a cinema and swimming pool.

Elephant and Castle will, like in its 1930s heyday, become a thriving urban centre where people come from across London to shop, eat, relax and be entertained.

The challenges

Once known as south London’s West End, Elephant and Castle began its decline following extensive bomb damage during the Second World War.

1960s planners, working to a London County Council plan called ‘New Sights of London’, wanted to create “a city that will be higher in the air and more spacious on the ground, with traffic and pedestrians travelling at different levels.” They designed an enormous traffic gyratory system, a 2km labyrinth of subways and a large enclosed shopping mall. The 1,200 unit, barrier block Heygate Estate was completed early in the 1970s.

The 60s vision never quite materialised. Because of the way Elephant and Castle was constructed, the area has been unable to evolve over time and has sunk into disrepair. Small scale improvements, such as the retiling of the subways and repainting of the shopping centre, have made little or no impact.

In June 2002 Southwark Council decided the only way to improve Elephant and Castle was to remove the physical barriers blighting the area, and approach the design and layout afresh. These barriers include:

• Outdated, badly constructed buildings in need of massive investment
• Poor quality housing
• A community divided by the area’s layout
• Heavy volumes of traffic
• High levels of pollution
• A hostile environment, leading to crime and the fear of crime

The opportunity

Elephant and Castle’s strengths include excellent transport links, including two zone one tube stations, an overland rail station and hundreds of buses each hour.

Although often perceived as being deep in south London, Elephant and Castle is further north than Victoria and closer to many of London’s key attractions such as the Houses of Parliament and London Eye than, for example, the West End.

The area lies within walking distance of central London’s economic, cultural and commercial centres. Elephant and Castle also occupies a key position within Southwark and has the potential to become the borough’s flagship location.

Its accessibility, proximity to the city, extensive public ownership of land and diverse population all provide a powerful base for regeneration.