Borough Yards A new mixed-use area amid the Victorian viaducts and warehouses

Making new tracks

A retail and hospitality district has been cleverly carved from disused railway viaducts and warehouses in London’s Borough, connecting previously cut-off streets

Words Emily Brooks

Images Ed Reeve

Facing page Clockwise from top: tunnels under the railway viaduct have been turned into walkways and retail space; the use of brick ties together old and new; art by FRA Creative draws on research into the characters that once frequented the locale London’s Borough is testament to the power of A Good Wander: strolling through its famous market and threading through narrow streets before emerging on to the wide-skied South Bank is one of the capital’s most popular pastimes, judging by the weekend crowds. Now, the wandering options have expanded, thanks to developer Mark’s Borough Yards, designed by architects SPPARC.

SPPARC has a specialism for what its founder Trevor Morriss refers to as “unlocking complex situations”, and this project fits the bill: when he took on the project, the majority of the site consisted of disused warehouses and railway viaducts radiating from London Bridge station. The practice has made it coherent thanks to several elements, including turning the arches into retail and hospitality space; opening up the area under the viaduct to create covered walk-throughs; a new corner-site retail store (now a Paul Smith) that’s a playful new take on the warehouse that stood here before it; and a smart Everyman cinema. A large neon artwork by FRA Creative spells out the characters that once frequented the area, “thief”, “labourer”, “acrobat” and “scumbag” among them.

The use of brick is “the DNA that stitches it all together”, says Morriss – echoing the Victorian surroundings but allowing you to pick out the new buildings, which feature pierced brickwork and “pulled” bricks that light and shade can play across. “Modern architecture cohabits with Victorian architecture, and even beyond the Victorian: we’ve also used a detail from the top of Southwark cathedral to create a tapestry of brickwork on one building’s facade,” says Morriss.

He also talks about the joys and challenges of working with railway arches: “They’re amazing structures, with their brickwork and generosity of height, but of course they weren’t designed to be modern retail spaces.” The illuminated internal walkways curve away in to the distance, inviting you to discover what’s at the end.

“The viaduct was this wonderful Victorian structure that runs straight through the middle of the site, but it was really quite divisive, separating the market from everything to the west,” says Morriss. “We wanted to open up routes and use the viaduct as a conduit.” The arches were the fixed constraint that was the starting point for the scheme, but SPPARC has found the space alongside to revive some of the street pattern that was here before the railway, reintroducing street names that haven’t been in used for several centuries – so here’s to a weekend wander around the evocative Dirty Lane, Soap Yard and Clink Yard.