Blackfriars Almshouses

An innovative and award-winning fully affordable housing development, creating 62 contemporary almshouses as a supportive community for older people facing hardship.

Client Southwark Charities
Sector Homes
Size 41,750m²
Location Blackfriars, London

Our contemporary almshouses for Southwark Charities establish a highly sustainable mixed-use development in Blackfriars with older people at its heart.

Consented by Southwark Council in 2021, the scheme includes 62 affordable homes for local residents in need alongside 22,500sqm of flexible workspace, community amenities and public landscaped gardens.

The innovative approach won Fathom the Housing category of the 2023 NLA Awards and an Honourable Mention at the 2022 Housing Design Awards, with the Awards Director David Birbeck commenting that our design “is already influencing others.”

Blackfriars Almshouses featured in The London Society Journal, a podcast for The Developer and were included in the Mayor of London’s Opportunity London showcase and the London Property Alliance’s publication on Social Value in the Built Environment.

The development is currently being delivered by EPR Architects and MRG Studio for JTRE London in partnership with Southwark Charities.

Chris Wilson, CEO at Southwark Charities
‘Fathom completely understood our priority of providing truly affordable homes for those in need. They have unlocked the potential of the site and risen magnificently to the challenge of creating almshouses in an urban setting.’

Homes for an ageing population

The Mayor’s Design Advisory Group report on Ageing London predicts that 2 million over 60s will be living in London by 2035, making older people the city’s fastest growing demographic.

Financial and societal pressure on older communities was a challenge facing our client, Southwark Charities, who felt strongly that an option was needed for local elderly residents to remain in the heart of their home borough.

The charity creates and manages almshouses offering older people facing hardship the opportunity to live independently for longer in a supported environment.

We were approached to design a new almshouse development, just off Blackfriars Road, as an active community with strong connections to the local area.

To maximise the number of homes on the site we needed to evolve the traditional almshouse typology of a low-level structure around an enclosed courtyard, and look for a solution which could provide a viable and vibrant community of older residents.

A design rooted in local history

Façade designs were inspired by the historic use of Blackfriars as tenter grounds, open fields where cloth was hung and dried for the textile industry.

Reimagining the traditional almshouse typology, the building is expressed in pale terracotta facing Nicholson Street, rising 15 storeys to create a vertical community where older local people facing hardship can live in a safe, social and inclusive environment.

Richly detailed terracotta façades reference the 18th century textile process of dyed fabric being stretched and pinned outside to dry – conceived as pinned fabric between tenterhooks, articulated with pleating, gathering and softly curved corners.

Community spaces at the base of the buildings open onto a new public garden designed in collaboration with MRG Studio, creating 950sqm of landscaped outdoor space to encourage interaction between residents, office workers and their neighbours.

Welcoming spaces for all

Our approach sought to establish a supportive and inclusive community with far-reaching social benefit.

We created a series of communal spaces at ground floor, from a warm personal welcome at the porter’s lodge to a comfortable lounge in which to relax and socialise with a fireplace, bookcases, games and tea/coffee making facilities.

A separate dual-aspect community hall at street level creates a flexible space for the wider community to host activities from wellness classes to birthday parties.

On the first floor, a flexible co-working space with desks and meeting rooms is created for local charitable initiatives, with the second floor providing a housekeeper’s apartment as well as three guest suites where family members or temporary carers can stay.

Upper levels provide 62 generously proportioned one-bedroom apartments grouped into clusters of ten across every two floors, connected via double height voids.

Generous three-metre-wide corridors with seating areas, planting, expansive views and shared terraces encourage social interaction between residents. Thresholds to homes are defined by a different floor finish, allowing occupants to personalise their entrance area with plants or decorations.

The top floor houses an attractive roof garden over 350sqm, designed with a warm and dry conservatory space for relaxed socialising, as well as a shaded outdoor pergola, BBQ and kitchen areas and raised beds for productive gardening as a group activity.

We worked with the University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre on ageing and dementia-friendly design principles, from landscape to residential units, which help people avoid confusion, stress, over-stimulation and navigational difficulties.

Passivhaus-standard insulation and air tightness has been introduced to prevent overheating, and the wider development includes measures to harness excess heat from the offices to provide hot water for the homes, as well as the use of air source heat pumps to remove all fossil fuel connections.

Balancing privacy with social isolation

Interior layouts, views and landscape were carefully considered to foster a strong sense of inclusion, recognising that feelings of loneliness and isolation have increased in recent years.

Each apartment is organised with a sliding partition between bedroom and living areas to allow additional space, daylight and views for those convalescing in bed. Living areas have a Juliet balcony and built-in window seat offering views of the local neighbourhood and the city beyond.

We positioned a window above the kitchen sink looking into the communal corridor spaces to encourage a feeling of neighbourliness, with the option of a timber shutter for privacy.

Every home has a washing machine – as preferred by the current residents – but a communal drying room in each cluster encourages residents to venture out of their apartments and interact, even for a short time.

From the landscaped gardens and civic uses at ground floor to the interdependent and supportive residents within, this development is designed to create a thriving community as a positive addition to the local neighbourhood and a valuable lifeline to the borough’s shops, businesses and institutions.

Establishing this close-knit group of older people allows their valuable historical and emotional connections to continue – maintaining social and family networks, as well as building new ones‚ enriching Southwark and ensuring that their legacy in the borough is not lost.

Credits

Architect Fathom Architects (planning)
Delivery Architect EPR (post planning)
Development Manager Pelican Developments
Landscape MRG Studio
Structure WSP
Services Long & Partners
Heritage Consultant Turley
Cost Consultant Gleeds
Environmental Consultant RES
Fire Consultant Jensen Hughes
Rights of Light Right of Light Consulting
Lifts D2E

Recognition

NLA Awards Winner
Housing Design Awards Honourable Mention

Project Information

Credits

Recognition