The WhatHouse? team recently took a walk from the office on Borough High Street to take a tour of Manor Place Depot, where Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) is building a collection of apartments in Walworth, SE17.
It’s a fine afternoon, so we head to Manor Place Depot on foot. It’s a very direct route south passing the Tube and railway stations of Elephant & Castle on the way. The marketing suite is just off the main road and it’s here we meet Jennifer Lane, marketing campaign manager of NHG, and Marcus Peers of selling agent Savills.
They start by giving us an overview around a model of the development. It has a mix of social rent, Shared Ownership (looked after by NHG) and private sale (through Savills). These are set within three blocks with two private communal garden spaces/play areas. The contemporary design of each building has some individual character and detail, so it’s not a case of every home looking exactly alike. Each does have its own private space (terrace or balcony), but there’s a real variety of floorplans, including some with curved living/dining room vistas. There are also some duplex units with two or three bedrooms.
Down the middle of the site is a series of railway viaduct arches which are close to completion of their refurbishment. Some will function as refuse and secure cycle storage, others let out. No confirmation yet, but it’s expected to be a mix of cafes and independent shops.
Sales here have been strong since launch. When the Shared Ownership properties were launched, initially to people living or working in the London Borough of Southwark, 62 were snapped up in three months. Many of these were bought by young professionals in their 30s and 40s, very much in line with the rather funky design of the marketing brochures and the office we’re standing in.
In total, for private sale there have been 22 one-bedroom units, 95 with two bedrooms and 19 with three launched. Of these, 66 have already been sold. London Help to Buy has been a very popular buying option – and with its requirement for a deposit of just 5% and a 55% mortgage, this isn’t surprising.
From the marketing suite, we don the PPE (hi-vis, boots, hard-hat and gloves) and start on a tour of the development led by Mark Calnan, site manager for construction company Durkan. We can see first-hand the architecture, the arrangement of the buildings and the work taking place on the viaduct arches before entering one of the residential blocks not far from completion. We enter a two-bedroom apartment to get an idea of space, layout and the standard specification of homes here. It’s not entirely fitted out, but we can see where the units and worktops are in the open-plan kitchen/dining/living room, and bedroom and bathroom dimensions that buyers can expect.
From here we head to the show home, a three-bedroom apartment fitted out by Clare Morton. It’s very much in keeping with the marketing suite, furnished and decorated with the younger buyer in mind, and there are a number of works from local artists on the walls throughout, reflecting the growing creative community in this neighbourhood. From the hallway is the open-plan kitchen/living room, with furnishings to demonstrate that it can comfortably fit a dining table too. We head to bedroom two, a double room which, like most rooms in all properties here, has a floor-to-ceiling window which will maximise the natural light coming in. The master bedroom shows the standard buyers can expect, with built-in wardrobes and an en suite, and there’s a single third bedroom that could also function as a home office.
We finish off our visit by going through some of the fascinating history of the site. Community baths opened at the end of the 19th century, washing facilities, swimming pools and a public laundry, and this was a major home for boxing for decades too. The initial site excavations here were carefully monitored and many artefacts recovered, from ceramics to bone syringes. There is also still a Grade II-listed building on this site, currently unused, the use of which will be considered on completion of the new build units.
For new residents at Manor Place Depot, there’s a great deal within very easy reach for practical and leisure use. Walworth Road has a host of large and small shops, a huge variety of cafes, restaurants and pubs, and some useful banks, pharmacies, gyms and the like. Elephant and Castle’s stations (Northern and Bakerloo Tube lines, Thameslink and Southeastern rail services) and shopping centre are a ten-minute walk away, and there’s even more to spend your money on going north along Borough High Street to London Bridge.
Also within a half-hour stroll, or even less time on one of 20-odd bus routes that run on Walworth Road, are such a variety of things: numerous schools, colleges and university buildings, Waterloo station, Burgess Park, the Imperial War Museum, the Kennington Oval and nine bridges across the Thames – a real mix of ‘business’ and pleasure.
Right now, private sale properties here start at £467,500, £595,000 and £732,500 for one, two or three bedrooms respectively. London Help to Buy is available on units below £600,000. Shared Ownership starts at £109,375 for a 25% share of a one-bedroom apartment (full market value of this, £437,500).
The marketing suite and show home at Manor Place Depot are open seven days a week, Monday to Friday from 11.00am to 7.00pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 10.00am to 4.00pm. You can find out more at www.manorplacedepot.com. Please tell the team there you heard about it through Whathouse.com