Five years after planning was granted, the first phase of British Land’s Canada Water mega regeneration project in south-east London is almost finished.

Back in May 2020, Southwark council gave the green light for the Allies and Morrison-designed masterplan to transform 53 acres of redundant docks, tired retail sheds and the Daily Mail printing works into a mixed-use community with 3,000 homes, two million square feet of workspace and one million square feet of retail, cultural and leisure facilities. With roots in office and retail, British Land had never attempted a mixed-use regeneration scheme on such a scale before so drafted in Argent’s Roger Madelin and colleague Phil Tait, who were responsible for the highly acclaimed Kings Cross regeneration project, to hopefully repeat that success. In another parallel, pension fund AustralianSuper, which has a 74% stake in Kings Cross, took a 50% stake in Canada Water last year.