PROJECT REPORT: HERITAGE & CONSERVATION
BUILDING PROJECTS
WOOLWICH WORKS LONDON
Balancing act
Creating a major new performance space to help revitalise a deprived part of south east London meant a delicate balancing act for Bennetts Associates in its adaptive reuse of five historic listed buildings, with close community involvement. Roseanne Field reports
set of five historic former military buildings in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, form Woolwich Works. This new cultural destination, created in what was the UK’s largest munitions factory, is a key part of a multi-million pound project hailed as important not only for preserving the history in a new use, but also for helping provide a lift for the local community. It was the “bold vision” of the Royal Borough of Greenwich (RBG), says Matthew Curtis, associate at the project’s architects Bennetts Associates, “to use arts and culture as a way to reconnect the community with the old Woolwich Arsenal site.”
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The practice were appointed in late 2014 to undertake a masterplan feasibility study, which Curtis explains “examined the central group of five Grade II and Grade II* listed former buildings at the heart of the Royal Arsenal and assessed their potential suitability for the development of a new creative quarter.” A masterplanning approach was also necessary for the “long term vision of the site,” he says, as “the ambition to create an entire district across multiple buildings is quite unique.”
Bennetts went on to win the commission to undertake the full refurbishment of two of the buildings, as well as “short-term upgrades” for the other three. “The council had a bold vision for creating a cultural district – accommodating a number of key stakeholders from performing arts to heritage organisations – and we wanted to help them realise it,” says Curtis. Opened in September last year, the buildings provide 15,000 m2
of flexible space for performance – including music, ADF JANUARY 2022
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Photography © Timothy Soar
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