A derelict Lewisham shopping centre once described as the worst in Britain has been sold to the fast growing Abu Dhabi owned developer London Square.
The company has bought the crumbling 1960s Leegate Shopping Centre site near Blackheath in south east London. It is London Square’s 14th acquisition since being bought by UAE based property company Aldar at the end of 2023.
The site is being bought from Galliard Homes which already has planning in place for a mixed use scheme with 562 homes, of which 173 are designated affordable, and 4,538sqm of ground floor commercial space.
London Square said it “plans to deliver an attractive mixed use destination development, with high quality homes featuring communal areas in a landscaped setting with retail, leisure, restaurants, cafes, and a medical facility.”
The company will start work on site later this year. The plans to redevelop the shopping centre, including building a 15 storey tower, were first submitted as long ago as 2015 but prolonged tussles over housing have held up the redevelopment.
The shopping centre opened in 1963 and was a bustling mall through the Seventies and Eighties busy enough to support branches of Woolworth’s, Boots, Abbey National building society and a Wetherspoons pub. However, it has declined catastrophically in recent years with most shops closing and one visitor describing it looking like “a Call of Duty map.”
CEO Adam Lawrence said: “This acquisition will herald a new chapter for Lee town centre, with much-needed homes and a new retail and leisure destination to attract the existing community and new residents.
“We look forward to working with the London borough of Lewisham to get the re-development under way later this year.”
This latest deal follows the purchase of Ransome’s Wharf in January.
Last year, London Square acquired a former convent site in Tite Street, next to the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Other acquisitions included the Grade II* listed Surrey County Hall in Kingston, Westminster Tower, opposite the Houses of Parliament, plus sites in zone 1 Vauxhall, Brook Green, Woolwich, Stratford Cross, Willesden and Twickenham.
The 14 sites – with 10 already under construction – will deliver more than two million sq ft of real estate across 10 London boroughs. The development pipeline has doubled to £3.8 billion gross development value. Of the sites acquired, 38 per cent of the homes being delivered will be affordable housing. London Square will deliver more than 7,000 homes in London over the next five years.
