The St Clement Danes Holborn Estate Charity owned 50 sheltered housing flats on a 6-acre site. However, the apartments began reaching the end of their economic life because bedsits were reportedly unattractive to future residents. Consequently, the Charity needed to replace them with new accommodation which could be financed by the sale of part of the estate for open market family housing, and additionally provide a more secure financial footing for the Charity. Therefore, the Charity sold part of the estate to private investors and developers to facilitate the development of new homes and, in turn, financed the new sheltered accommodation units.

St Clement Danes Holborn Estate appointed Pellings to provide architectural services to the St Clement’s Heights development in Sydenham to deliver the new sheltered accommodation units and for private rent and sale. We worked closely with Outerspace Landscape Architects and Savills to produce a masterplan that ensured contemporary buildings aligned with the surrounding landscape whilst meeting the conflicted needs of the Charity and private developer client groups. The redevelopment now provides 50 one- and two-bedroom Almshouses, 20 four-bedroom houses, and 26 two- and three-bedroom self-contained flats. Aside from housing, the project generated 76 car parking spaces, cycle and refuse stores, vehicular accesses onto Sydenham Hill and Wells Park Road and extensive landscaping. The living units were successfully constructed to HAPPI and London Housing Design Guide standards.

It was incredibly rewarding to work on this sheltered housing project because we believe that being able to assist vulnerable groups is a perfect way to give back to the local community. Furthermore, it ensures that our multi-disciplinary services and expertise are being used to better the lives of people in our neighbourhood which is our main aim at Pellings.