Value: £28.5m
Client: Igloo Regeneration
Construction: mid-2004
Munkenbeck+Marshall project, Stephen Marshall Partner in charge

A first-rate example of effective and good looking urban regeneration, Bermondsey Square is a new focus for an old area that was neglected and run down. It is truly a mixed development – with the New Caledonian Antiques Market as a regular focus. The developer, Igloo Regeneration, requested apartments, offices, a 100-room hotel, offices, a cinema (and facilities for outdoor projection), shops, restaurants and bars.

The Marshall approach takes the three main buildings around the perimeter with the tallest corner tower on the most prominent part of the site on Tower Bridge Road. To avoid a sea of lamp-posts, the square with its market stalls is lit by suspended pantagraph lighting which, ‘reduces the sky ceiling’.

A carefully located opening between buildings gives a view of the spire of the church of St Mary Magdalene. Cladding varies on the street sides – timber and metal – while on the inside of the square it is more uniform with monoflex artwork.