Royal Arsenal, Woolwich

During the Tudor period, the area of open land of today's Royal Arsenal was known as the Warren. Late in the 17th century the grounds of a grand Tudor house came into the ownership of the Office of Ordnance, and this was redeveloped to become the Royal Military Academy. Strategically located on the Thames, and with the City of London upriver, it became a hub for production, proving and storing of armaments for the armed forces - an engine of Empire. Subsequent waves of development brought the building of ships, the making of rope and the casting of cannon. In 1805, the designation 'the Royal Arsenal' was bestowed, and the munitions industry grew throughout the nineteenth century with the site housing some 80,000 employees at its peak. Due to its clandestine role for the Ministry of Defence and the need to maintain highest security the land inside the high perimeter walls was left blank on local maps and the Royal Arsenal became locally known as the 'Secret City'.

Royal Arsenal ceased to be a military establishment in 1994 and the freehold of the remaining land was passed to the Greater London Council (now the GLA) who sought development partners. Berkeley Homes entered into development agreement with the GLA and in 2005 invited us to design a residential led masterplan centred around the historic core of No.1 Street and Dial Arch Square, providing 3,700 homes, retail and commercial space. Our role at the Royal Arsenal has been twofold, as masterplanners of a 15.5-hectare site in the heart of the historic Arsenal quarter, and as architect for several waterside residential buildings within the masterplan redline.

The masterplan harnesses the existing urban form setting out a legible network of streets, lanes and open spaces. It is centred on No.1 Street, Dial Arch Square and Duke of Wellington Avenue. Working with the pre-existing fabric, the plan adjusts to connect with MacBean Street and Woolwich's high street (Powis Street). These create a new linear park that connects Woolwich's town centre to the River.

The masterplan celebrates the history with redundant older building's, like the Royal Laboratories (1696), reimagined with new uses such as homes, shops, bars and restaurants, which are integrated into new development. They are the centre of a formal square surrounded by new apartment buildings. The context of many listed buildings has meant that careful consideration has been given to new architecture; new buildings are contemporary yet complementary in both form and materiality to this historic neighbours. The height, scale and materiality of new buildings within the historic boundary, demarcated by a massive 3.0m high brick wall that surrounded the whole site, respond respectfully to the scale and mass of the listed buildings.

The ribbon like park, Maribor Park, crosses the site and echoes the footprint of the Crossrail tunnel below ground. It turns the financial expense of the complicated foundations required when building above a train tunnel, into the opportunity of a new public open space connecting the town centre to the Thames. Within the historic core, the new streets and routes, and the massing and form of new buildings, all pick up on the surrounding urban grain and scale of the old town, the river and grid left by the Royal Arsenal.

Residents have moved into this compact residential neighbourhood with views of and access to the River Thames. The opening of the new Woolwich Elizabeth line station in May 2022 now makes this a prime location within easy reach of central London (21 minutes to Bond Street) and a direct link to Heathrow, making it an attractive place for Londoners to call home. Today, Woolwich is fast becoming an exemplar of how new residential life can be brought into once declining historic sites, creating compact, well-connected places to call home.