Tom Copley, GLA Deputy Mayor for Housing (second from left) joins a community action event at the Cable Street site in January 2024, with local community leaders and our Executive Director Oliver Bulleid (right) © Brendan Foster Photography
Cable Street, Shadwell, Tower Hamlets
Status: Agreement on site
Size: 41 homes (1, 2, 3 and 4-bedrooms)
About
The tight-knit Shadwell community is working hard to turn a disused Transport for London site into our largest CLT project, with 41 homes, green spaces and a community room. Working with architects at Levitt Bernstein, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London, local campaigners on the Community Steering Group are leading the way on this project, getting neighbours and nearby groups involved in making key decisions on the design and affordability of the homes.
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More than 400 local people have been involved in the proces; the land is secured for community housing and we have GLA funding to take the project through to a planning application in early 2025.
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The development will feature 41 new CLT homes for local people, all incorporating low-energy Passivhaus design. Selected by the community, architects Levitt Bernstein will create an active street along Cable Street, offering more space for walking, cycling, and social interactions. The project will include community space and a pocket park, providing shared green space for residents and the wider community. London CLT alongside the Community Steering Group are exploring the possibility of including socially rented homes within the development to further increase affordability for local people.
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What next?
The Community Steering Group aims to submit for planning permission in early 2025 and will be holding community meetings throughout 2024 to involve more local people at this important stage of the development process. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch via email: info@londonclt.org.
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Left: The community vision for Cable Street by Levitt Bernstein – architects appointed by the Shadwell community. Right: Presenting the design at GLA's City Hall at a community event in December 2023
Top: Local people campaigning near Tower Bridge. Bottom Left: Local clergy and schoolchildren campaigning outside the site, May 2018. Bottom Right: Neighbourhood Walk for Affordable Housing, 2016
Campaign history
After a long locally-driven effort to increase access to genuinely affordable homes, on 22 March 2018, Shadwell campaigners joined with campaigners from Shadwell Citizens to gather at City Hall and hand in our bid for this site.
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"The Shadwell CLT campaign sprung from a group of local people who wanted more safe, warm, affordable homes in Shadwell – houses that would be truly affordable for people in the area, that would let us stay near our friends, our work and our families. Houses that we’d be proud to call homes.
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"The journey started in 2016 with a Walk for Affordable Housing around the local area, looking for unused land. One site we identified was just a short walk from St George’s in the East Church where the group. Next to the railway was a fenced off area of scrubland on the corner of Cannon Street Rd and Cable Street, owned by Transport for London.
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"Since then, we’ve worked with the London CLT to tailor a bid to build these homes, and we held a planning meeting to discuss the potential layout of the homes; and discuss people’s priorities for housing. We also held a stall in the nearby Watney Market, speaking to local people about their experiences of housing and their aspirations for a community land trust. We’re building on the success of the bid to talk with more people at our churches, our Mosque, and our schools about community land trusts, so that good quality housing is the reach of everyone in our community."
- Sarah-Emily Mutch, Cable Street Community Steering Group
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Community-led design process
In November 2018, we held a public meeting to draw up a Community Brief together, stating our vision for the site. We used this to tender for an architect, and representatives of the group shortlisted four architects to invite to a Choose the Architect event on 17 March 2019 at St George-in-the-East Church. Nearly fifty people cast their vote for the architect they wanted to work with to design these homes and the winner was Levitt Bernstein.
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In the summer of 2020, we entered into a funding agreement with the Greater London Authority to develop proposals for the site.
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We had a successful planning pre-application meeting in February 2022. Development funding from the Greater London Authority is in place and the land secured for community housing. We have a planning submission targeted for early 2025.
Left: Community Brief event, November 2018. Right: Community drop-in event, February 2023
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Choose the Architect event, March 2019.
