Elephant and Castle

Elephant and Castle town centre was badly damaged during the Second World War. The London County Council (LCC) bought the land for redevelopment.

Rebuilding began in the 1960s and the Heygate estate was completed in 1974. The estate’s design was based on the idea that most residents would own a car. High level walkways were built for pedestrians, making more room for cars at ground level.

Most original tenants were delighted with their new apartments, but the walkways were unpopular and underused. In time, the lack of natural surveillance made crime and anti-social behaviour more of a problem.

Why the area is being redeveloped

Southwark Council looked into improving the estate, but fundamental problems with the layout and the walkways would have remained. In 1998 we explored options to redevelop the estate instead. 

We then went on to:

• build affordable housing in and around Elephant and Castle so tenants could relocate locally
• hold a consultation, with 96% of responses in favour of a major regeneration scheme
• bid for Single Regeneration Budget funding from the government to help transform the area

Relocating Heygate residents

In 2005, all 595 council tenants were given band 1 priority to relocate. 99% opted to stay in Southwark. Whilst all the tenants were offered the chance to stay in Elephant and Castle, many made the choice to move to other parts of Southwark. All tenants were also offered the right to return.

People who owned their homes on the Heygate estate (leaseholders) were offered compensation in line with the statutory land compensation code. You can read more about the compulsory purchase order.  

We recognised that for some leaseholders, this might not be enough to enable them to remain in the area. So we offered: 

• 20 shared ownership homes in the Strata Tower 
• shared ownership in council homes for those that qualified
• the option for the least wealthy leaseholders to become council tenants again