Councillors have agreed to demolish Bermondsey’s Maydew House amid suggestions that a new block could be built in its place.
The council has not confirmed that it plans to replace the 144 flats being bulldozed but a council officer indicated it was being considered.
Demolition means the council is ditching its renovation of the 26-storey block, which has already cost it over £15 million.
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At the council meeting on Monday, February 6, housing boss Cllr Darren Merrill explained that rising construction costs meant the block’s refurbishment would now cost an unviable £69,644,677.
As recently as 2019, officials estimated the renovation would cost just over £42.1 million.
Cllr Merrill said the council had “done everything we can looking at saving or refurbishing this estate” but inflation meant it was “impossible”.
The refurbishment, planned since 2012, would have meant five new floors of 24 flats on top of Maydew and complete makeovers for existing flats.
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The original plans also included new rooftop homes for other Abbeyfield Estate blocks like Thaxted and Damory House.
In its report, Southwark Council argued that money spent on refurbishment to date had not been wasted.
Completed works like a ‘soft strip’ of the building, demolition of the podium, and heating infrastructure diversion, are all necessary for demolition, it argued.
Until now, the estate’s Bede Centre, a charity for young people with learning disabilities, was set to be given a new home in the lower section of the refurbished block. Its future is now uncertain.
Bede Centre director Mahua Nandi said the centre should remain on the Abbeyfield Estate.
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She said its location meant it was accessible and well-known to the local community and that service users were able to travel there independently.
The council has not explicitly said that a new residential block will be built once Maydew is demolished, but a council officer indicated this was a prospect.
The officer said refurbishing the building would mean it being “knocked down within a generation” because “it wouldn’t last”.
“So that’s why we’ve gone for the approach of demolition and rebuilding,” he said.
He added: “The rebuild gives us a modern building at modern fire standards, everything already built into it, with a much-extended life span on that basis.”
The officer also indicated that Thaxted and Damory could eventually be demolished, an idea never previously touted.
Cllr Stephanie Cryan stepped in to say: “You were talking about demolishing Damory and Thaxted which isn’t mentioned… in this report…the residents in Damory and Thaxted are saying we don’t want to demolish.”
Council Leader Kieron Williams affirmed that those blocks would only be bulldozed and redeveloped if residents voted for it in a ballot.
Southwark Council will now begin consulting residents on the future of the Abbeyfield Estate.