The Armourer’s Court is a planned 394-unit residential development, which is to be built above Crossrail’s Woolwich Station, London, UK. To be located at the eastern end of the station, the residential development will consist of five buildings of varying heights. The Royal Borough of Greenwich gave planning permission to the Crossrail station and approved the plan for the Armourer’s Court in September 2014.
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The new Woolwich Crossrail station, which will be a sub-surface box station, is a part of the £14.8bn Crossrail project, which is planned to run more than 100km from Reading and Heathrow. Woolwich is a district in east London, located on the south bank of the River Thames in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The Armourer’s Court has been designed by TP Bennett with planning advisers GVA and engineers ARUP. The design was reviewed by Design Council CABE, for the purpose of gaining approval. The local community, including the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greater London Authority and English Heritage, also took part in the design.
Construction on the project is expected to begin upon completion of the Woolwich station in 2018.
Berkeley Homes is also developing 3,711 residential units and 26,357m² of non residential floor space within the Royal Arsenal site, which is situated between the Armourer’s Court site and the Thames. The development will be at the western end of the station.
Armourer’s Court location and design
Armourer’s Court will be built on a site that was previously occupied by a single-storey warehouse and a car park.
The residential buildings above the station will be built around a landscaped garden with an underground car and cycle park. The development will take place above and around the station’s proposed east ventilation shaft and services building.
The residential units are designed to meet Lifetime Home standards, the design criteria required for new residential developments in Greater London.
Three buildings of increasing height are planned to be constructed from the north to the east of the station. A ten-storey building is planned to be constructed in the south eastern corner, while a 22-storey building will be constructed to the south.
Marco Polo House redevelopment will replace the Marco Polo House in Battersea Park, London, with a mixed-use scheme.
Approximately 10% of the residential units will be accessible for people using wheelchairs. The proposed site also contains car parking facilities for the disabled.
The Armourer’s Court will have ground-level retail and business spaces. It will also consist of 734m² of commercial floor space.
Sustainability
The project is expected to achieve a reduction of 57t of carbon dioxide annually (12%) in regulated CO² emissions, compared with a 2010 Building Regulations-compliant development.
The developers are also proposing to install 930m² of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof tops of the buildings to further cut down on the emissions.
Crossrail Woolwich station
The Woolwich Station will be 276m long and between 22.4m and 26.6m wide, and feature a 245m-long island platform. The outer part of the station will include a new ticket hall to the west and a ventilation shaft to the east.
The 256m-long station box for the Woolwich Station was completed in February 2013 by Berkeley Homes. The underground station structure is 26m wide and 18m deep. The size of the station box is equivalent to the size of 32 Olympic swimming pools.
The station box has been constructed deep into an aquifer and is held to the ground with 51 concrete anchors.
