Bennet's Courtyard

Information

Location: Watermill Way, London, Collier's Wood SW19 2RW

Built: 2004

Designer: Countryside Properties (developer) / Feilden Clegg Bradley (architects)

Type: urban

Density: 125 homes per hectare

Parking ratio: 95%

Set within the wider Abbey Mills development, Bennet's Courtyard represents the first buildings in a high density mixed-use quarter designed on a busy trunk road wrap a pair apartment blocks and a villa block round a podium car park. On one side, ground floor apartments look onto the River Wandle, on the other shops face established pubs and cafes.

The development is a formal brick composition reflecting the 18th and 19th century mill buildings once used to block print fabrics for the Liberty department store. These industrial buildings now house cafes and restaurants, and a handicrafts market. The River Wandle passes by the site to the west side, and Bennet’s Ditch contains it to the south; two electricity pylons with overhead cables dominate the site by day.

Access to the site is from a busy roundabout sprouting fast food outlets; subsequent phases of the scheme are under construction here of a different order and quality. The manner of design is solid and plain to the principal elevations, but less ordered to its gable ends. The scheme mostly sits on a generously landscaped plinth, with access to the flats by naturally ventilated passive solar atria which also act as winter gardens.

There is on street parking between the existing market buildings and new residential blocks; the roadway is a culde-sac finished in two sizes of pressed cobble and linking with a new pedestrian bridge; square precast paviors front the retail units. This parking is neither designated, nor divided into bays but serves as visitors’ provision. Residents’ parking is in a lofty undercroft on the same level wrapped by commercial units on the street side with a podium above.

Parking is in marked bays and separated from the street by a mix of slatted oak screens or digitally controlled open-mesh roller shutters giving security to vehicles within. The podium above is an attractive semi-private amenity space with gates allowing pedestrians direct access to the shops and cafes below and also to the quieter riverbank. It is also accessed from the atria of the buildings enveloping it. Elsewhere, the drive-on surface to the western edge of the site is constructed from a plastic grid below turf, and is intended for fire brigade access only.

The development consists predominantly of 1 and 2 bed flats, alongside 3 retail units, and is arranged in a 4 storey orthogonal block with landscaped winter garden.