White Crown for London
Santiago Calatrava has unveiled a £1 billion development on the edge of London’s River Thames, which will host a new tube station, performance venue and winter gardens topped by a crown-like arrangement of towers.
The 130,064-square-metre scheme developed by Knight Dragon is shown rising beside Richard Roger’s Millennium Dome on the Greenwich Peninsula – a finger of land that extends into the River Thames in southeast London. Peninsula Place will be Calatrava’s first major UK project.
The illuminated terraced blocks will house offices, apartments and hotels with views of the River Thames, as well as winter gardens below.
Three tapering towers will stand atop a tube and bus station, theatre, cinema, bars, shops and a performance venue.
Visitors and residents will emerge from the tube station into a 24-metre-high glazed gallery containing the gardens.
A new tubular bridge featuring latticed sides will connect the development with the waterfront. Cables will anchor the bridge to a tall spike, reminiscent of that found on the architect’s Chord Bridge in Jerusalem.
Calatrava’s Peninsula Place forms part of £8.4-billion regeneration works on the river-side site, which is to include 15,720 homes, a film studio, as well as a new design district, schools, offices and healthcare services.
Calatrava’s Peninsula Place is intended as a gateway to the wider development, where architects including US firm SOM, British architects Marks Barfield, DSDHA, Alison Brooks and Duggan Morris have also been commissioned to design buildings.
Santiago Calatrava Architects & Engineersa
