LONDON | St. George Wharf Tower | 181m | 50 fl | T/O

[Ni3lS]

As soon as I see some prep work pictures I'll change the title.

[PortoNuts]

Pictures of the site.

by Swissdave.

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr



image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[PortoNuts]

Originally Posted by Swissdave

Here's the site on Friday. Too much going on on the deliveries front to get a picture of what's going on inside (and it's an awkward location - nowhere to see in from except the main entrance and exit gates), though concrete is certainly being poured somewhere if the endless line of cement mixers is anything to go by.



The piling device keeps moving around, often at the very edge of the site - and switching between having a large screw/drill attached, and the contraption you can see above (which looks like a lot of buckets tied together). There was also a steamroller moving around on the site when this photo was taken.

Meanwhile in the rest of the development, the marketing suite that sold the flats for the old development has been renamed 'the Tower, St George Wharf' - but still has the floor plans of the old (and now fully sold) Aquarius House on the walls, and models of the old development, and no model or pictures of the tower.

I have a feeling that this renaming is a stop gap, until they move to the new building - and that they'll soon close the old office and let it commercially. All the other premises on the site have been let to pubs and bars that are doing good business, and even the most difficult-to-let unit in Aquarius House now has signs all over it saying Pret A Manger is about to open, so they're probably looking to cash in on the large unit. And the newer building I reckon is the marketing suite for the tower (previous post somewhere above) has been fitted out internally in the last few weeks and sometimes has lights on, but remains behind the site hoarding.

[PortoNuts]

Originally Posted by Swissdave

Here's a quick update from this morning -

To start with a photo of the old and (I reckon) soon to be closed marketing suite - rebranded, but not in a particularly permanent way, to market the tower;and looking a it tired on the inside (it's been there a good few years now as the rest of the development has unfolded) - not posted to save space but there's a link here

And a photo of the likely new marketing suite. There's a new hoarding behind it that separates this building from the construction site (with graphic of the riverside on it) - almost impossible to get a photo of, but you can make it out from Vauxhall bridge if you have good eyesight. Note the shopfitting van parked at the left, which seemed to be part of the finishing touches. The paving to the left of the shot was also getting quite a lot of attention; looks like a small garden square is being created.



On the main site here's the piling machine still going strong -



The builders have made some accidental small holes in the sheeting along the perimeter fence (that's the white bit in the image above) which has opened up some more camera angles in the site. Here's a view of the fairly crowded situation inside -



And there's another one here. This one shows an important development - the growth of a large number of yellow (and, unusually, light green) mushrooms! Here's a close up of the piling that's been taking place along the south west corner of the site (i.e. roughly along the edge of the Nine Elms Lane).



This also gives a feel for just how tight this site is - these are only a few feet from the edge of the road (the pavement has been closed), and you can see the access road which goes over the top of the piling at the back of the line of mushrooms.

Here's a photo of the other side of the site, where the other edge of the piling is visible (where the people in hi-vis tops are). The sloping surface at the left (with some metal grid reinforcement leaning on it) is the Thames river wall; the space between this wall and the line of piling will be the Thames Path. In the background you can see the western side of the marketing suite (the other photo of it above was taken from the Eastern side).



Another slightly different take on this view here - which again gives a feel for how busy the site is. These pictures were taken a bit before 9am, and the site was quite calm - no more than a dozen people there; the quietest it has been for a while.


(higher resolution here).

[Atmosphere]

Originally Posted by air-some

Construction site on St. George's Wharf . . .

The southern bank always look poor and anyone knows . . . ?

Achievement unlocked: Getting banned 100 times.

[RobertWalpole]

Nice tower.

I'd prefer not to see skyscrapers in the West End though.

[max17495]

hmm, why may i ask??

[PortoNuts]

A picture and good analysis of the site.

Originally Posted by Swissdave

Thanks Ismail - probably also explains why there's now a small area set fenced off within the site with boards up saying 'soil survey'. The site's looking even more crowded now - huge tanks, and numerous diggers and compressors of all descriptions, seem to take up almost all available space. A second (smaller) drill / pile driver has now turned up, and seems to have been making some narrow but deep holes. The orangeish tripod setup in front of the truck had a cable attached to it that was being winched out of what I think was one such hole, with quite a few people watching it; I presume this is some deep drilling to see exactly what's down there.



The big white pile driver, which previously did the piling round the side of the site, now seems to be at work right in the middle of the building footprint.

Incidentally the rest of the St George Wharf development is, as of a few days ago, fully finished - the courtyard nearest Vauxhall station is open, the whole site has been given a spring clean, and Pret a Manger facing MI6 is open (and seems to be doing good business - the pavement seating's proved popular despite the traffic).

It's certainly not been universally praised by architects, but it's been popular with the public who seem to have voted with their feet and I think St George will be pleased with the result. The two most recently finished units facing the bus station - one shop and restaurant - are still to let, but everything else in this development has sold, without any obvious discounting, and even the compulsory-but-usually hard-to-let commercial units are doing brisk business.

Like many of the St George riverside developments, and there are quite a few (at least three in the Battersea / Sands End area), it has unusually generous and accessible public spaces. It also has thoughtful access routes, for example a subway under the Vauxhall bridge; and plans for something very similar at their Battersea Reach development. This seems to have paid off by making even units buried deep in the development fairly easy to let; when the tower is finished there'll be a very obvious 'desire line' running from Nine Elms Lane along the riverside that ought to make the riverside units very valuable.

[Frankus Maximus]

Can the thread title be changed to Prep now? A few from the weekend:

[PortoNuts]

Thanks for the pictures . Anxious to see above ground work.

[Frankus Maximus]

Originally Posted by PortoNuts

Thanks for the pictures . Anxious to see above ground work.

Same here, bring on the above ground work . But I'm pretty hopeful about this one, the part of the development already built has been very successful and I think the tower element will continue to progress.

[PortoNuts]

We hope so.

This one shall be the tallest residential highrise in Britain, stealing the crown from Macnhester I think.

[Frankus Maximus]

Indeed, it will be the tallest UK 'all residential'. The Beetham Tower in Manchester (169m) is mixed use, i.e. residentail and Hotel by the way.

[PortoNuts]

Originally Posted by Swissdave

In post number 2, here are some photos of the construction site. Frankly these aren't great - it's very hard to get a decent view as the hoardings are fairly comprehensive, and the site's extremely crowded - other than the site being visibly busy, and a significant amount of earth still being moved every day, I'm not too sure what's actually going on here!

First, the new glossy hoardings that replaced the old blue wooden ones (the sections that stick up are illuminated from behind at night - as hoardings go, this is expensive stuff done to a very high standard!) - with big drill rig behind -


A view through the gate where you can see the ground level in the site has dropped by a few feet -


There's lots of this sort of construction being moved around (as well as longer, rusty brown ones) - presumably reinforcement for large piles -


Slightly older photo (two weeks ago) that doesn't show much apart from the crowded nature of the site -


And finally, in what's probably the best viewpoint (but still not great), a view of the site from the riverside -


More and more large green tanks are appearing at the rear of the site. The piling wall has been capped off. And is that a huge drill on its side in the centre left? One thing's for sure - they're not wasting time on this, and real money is being spent gearing up for the marketing - so Vauxhall looks set to have at least one major new tower. And in a separate development, the neighbouring Vauxhall Cross Ialand tower (thread here) has also just gone in for planning (again).

[PortoNuts]

Its scale is perhaps a bit overwhelming to its surrounding but it may be the start of further highrise development in the area.

[PortoNuts]

£50m price tag for Vauxhall penthouse in 'Knightsbridge of the South'


High life: features include a swimming pool and 360-degree views at a level 45 metres higher than the London Eye

It may be an unlikely “Knightsbridge of the South” but an address in Vauxhall is set to join London's premier properties with a £50million price tag.

The riverside triplex penthouse at the top of what will be Europe's tallest residential tower goes on the market on September 18 and is easily the most expensive property put up for sale south of the river.

The Tower, One St George Wharf is also believed to be the highest asking price outside the traditional “ultra-prime” streets of Mayfair, Kensington, Belgravia and Knightsbridge.

This latest example of a London “trophy home” comes after the Standard revealed that an apartment in the One Hyde Park scheme was being sold for £140 million.

Developer St George says the Vauxhall property's valuation is justified by the location on the Thames and its 360-degree views of the capital.

The penthouse will be 180 metres from the ground, 45 metres higher than the top of the London Eye, when it is finished in 2014.


Towering ambition: a model of the tower and, top, a computer image of its top floors

A spokeswoman for St George said: “There is a walkway all the way around the apartment and from that you could dive into the Thames, it is that close.

“You are never going to get that again as all the other towers are set back from the river. The new money coming into London have different views on where they want to live.

"They understand the importance of location but they also understand when something is a one-off and this is a one-off.”

The tower is on a sharp bend on the Thames which also means that the views take in more of the river.

Marketing material for the development stresses its central position rather than the address south of the river. It is described as lying “opposite Pimlico in London's rapidly evolving and culturally significant South Bank”.

Vauxhall was known for decades as a rundown area blighted by major roads and the railways emerging from Waterloo but is now being gentrified. It is sometimes referred to as VoHo because of its club scene, particularly serving the gay community.

Residents of the tower will have access to concierge services provided by an offshoot of Harrods and an infinity pool taking up all the ground floor.

Former Cabinet minister John Prescott approved the scheme, officially known as The Tower, One St George Wharf, five years ago against the advice of his inspector and design and heritage advisers.

It will contain 223 flats and was designed by architects Broadway Malyan, the firm originally behind the Shard of Glass at London Bridge Station before they were replaced by Renzo Piano.

St George recently sold a lower triplex penthouse in Battersea for £8 million.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...f-the-south.do

[PortoNuts]

Originally Posted by Swissdave

Current state of the site here (apologies, quite hard to make out what's happening in the photo as there was stuff all over the shop, and the sun didn't help much by being in the wrong place). Piling clearly continuing.

Even more banners and marketing paraphernalia have appeared around the site. And what looks like the base of a crane (but almost certainly isn't - wrong reinforcement bar pattern I think) - at the right below -

[OMG!WTF!]

This needs to be moved into the Under Construction section....

Tower Crane has/is being erected on site...currently at about 50m or so...




Yippee!!....yet another skyscraper for London..

And before anyone says anything, the official definition of a Skyscraper in London (and UK) is 150m.

[PortoNuts]

This one is amazingly kicking off.

by Ciudad Bristol.

[PortoNuts]

by dg01.

[IMG]http://i51.************/5xn8mp.jpg[/IMG]