Butler’s Wharf by Conran and Partners

Butler’s Wharf in Southwark, London, was presented at the AT Awards live finals on 20 September 2023 to a jury comprising Simon Allford, Esther Robinson Wilde, Ed Jarvis,  Amin Taha, Patrick Bellew, and Chair Lee Mallett. Read about how the project has stood the test of time.

Credit: Ray Phillips

Completed
1991

Widely recognised as one of the UK’s most significant early urban regeneration projects, Butler’s Wharf in Southwark, London, comprises the transformation of a derelict area of redundant Victorian warehousing into a thriving community of restaurants, bars, shops, galleries, flats and offices.

Conran Roche (now Conran and Partners) developed the masterplan and design code for the site in 1983, designing a number of new buildings and the conversion of others, including the original Design Museum and the iconic Butler’s Wharf Building. “It would have been easy to clear the site and start afresh”, says the practice, “but Terence’s vision was founded on the reuse of the wharf buildings. This approach is now acknowledged as a means of radically reducing the amount of embodied carbon used to generate new neighbourhoods of valued residential, commercial and hospitality space.”

Credit: Ray Phillips

The project posed serious challenges in terms of cost and the timescale needed to accomplish the works. Apart from the sheer scale of delivering the masterplan, the existing buildings had little in the way of foundations, and internal structures had to be re-formed in concrete. This all took place in the face of tough economic conditions. Many of the materials used on the scheme are reclaimed or original to the existing buildings. They have a robust, timeless quality, which means they require little maintenance or replacement, and should provide many more decades of use.

Testament to the rigour and quality of the masterplan and original conversion is that the scheme remains a thriving community of workers, visitors and residents, as well as a key London destination. As a reuse project that has commercial longevity, Butler’s Wharf is also inherently sustainable.