Assael’s design gets the green light for John Lewis Partnership’s first Build to Rent community

The thoughtfully designed scheme transforms an underutilised brownfield site into a vibrant mixed-use development, featuring 353 new homes, purposed designed for rent including affordable homes at London Living Rent. The development also includes a modernised Waitrose store, café, and a new public piazza that will serve as a community hub and meeting place.

The London Borough of Bromley planning committee voted in favour of the development, following the recommendation of its planning officers. The application received 147 letters of support from local residents, significantly surpassing those who opposed the proposal.

Katherine Russell, the John Lewis Partnership’s Director of BTR, said:  

“We’re delighted that the elected members have agreed with the recommendations of their planning officials and after receiving significant support from the residents of Bromley, this now gives us the opportunity to enhance the local area, create vital new housing for the local people of Bromley and deliver a state-of-the-art Waitrose, which sits at the heart of the community.” 

Assael Architecture and the project team engaged in extensive public consultations with local communities, councillors, and other local groups to understand the housing needs, connectivity and cultural desires of the area.

The new Build to Rent homes, to be operated by John Lewis Partnership, will feature a wide range of shared internal and external amenities accessible to all residents. These include fitness studios, private dining facilities, lounge, co-working, event spaces, pet wash facilities, and resident cycle parking. A large podium garden with a southerly aspect will provide a sheltered and sunlit area for residents to relax and socialise, overlooked by gallery accessed dual aspect homes, and a shared roof top garden.

As part of the redevelopment, John Lewis Partnership will significantly enhance the Waitrose store, demonstrating their long-term commitment to Bromley. The refurbished store will include a new café open to the public, internal store refurbishment, a dedicated click-and-collect desk, and an improved car parking experience with electric vehicle charging points. The store will feature a new double-height entrance, with improved legibility to customers, complementing the residential buildings.

The architecture has been developed to reflect the local character and take references from the historical arts and crafts in Bromley. The material palette predominantly features brick, accented with green metal detailing, reflecting local materials and tones. Distinctive architectural details, including projecting brick pattern-work and decorative metalwork on the façades, are inspired by the local Grade II listed St Mark’s School and John Lewis Partnership’s heritage branding. These details will highlight entrances, the crowns of the taller buildings, and facades of the Waitrose store.

The public realm, designed by Assael Exteriors, is centred around biophilic design principles, using green infrastructure, colour, texture, and habitat creation to connect building users to nature – enhancing health, wellbeing, and the experience of place. Organic patterns and colours will seamlessly connect the public realm with internal spaces, creating attractive and serene areas for residents, customers and visitors.

A new public piazza is proposed as a transformative space that adapts to various community needs, fostering a verdant and sensory-rich setting for socialisation, relaxation, and recreation.

Tall buildings celebrate this key location, framing the vibrant piazza and enhancing the accessibility and navigability between Bromley South Station and the neighbourhood. The pedestrian-centric design promotes active and sustainable travel, and with the introduction of a new pedestrian and cycle-friendly woodland link, strengthens urban connectivity, offering a green corridor from the West towards Bromley South Station and the Town Centre.

The vision is to create a sustainable development, offering high-quality, energy-efficient homes. In line with the GLA’s three-step Be Lean, Be Clean, Be Green energy hierarchy, it will be fossil fuel free with low-carbon technology including photovoltaics generating renewable energy, air source heat pumps and a refrigeration scheme that will enable waste heat from the store to be shared with the residential accommodation. Whole-life carbon assessments will be conducted, and most of the existing Waitrose store structure will be reused to retain more of the embodied carbon on site.

Russell Pedley, Co-founder and Director of Assael, said:

“The whole project team has worked hard to help deliver this result, working with officers and local groups to design a new community in this sustainable location in Bromley Town Centre – we’re all delighted to get the green light from the Planning Committee.

This design demonstrates the power of the Build to Rent sector to attract retail brands and institutional investors to revitalise our town centres. Helping them repurpose their significant property assets to build much-needed residential homes where needed and diversifying our urban places with blended uses.”