'Big brands' vying to open at redeveloped Elephant shopping centre
With three years to go until the opening of the new shops on the site of the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, the developer says that "very big brands" are already queueing up to open stores in the complex.
Richard Allen, head of retail at GetLiving, was speaking on Tuesday night at a community meeting organised by local councillors in North Walworth, Faraday and Newington as part of the Empowering Communities Programme.
Asked by one local resident how the scheme would adapt to changes in the high street retail market, Mr Allen said that he was "very, very positive" about the outlook for the development known as the Elephant & Castle Town Centre.
"This is going to be an amazing new shopping centre in zone one in London," he said.
"You will see a mixture of very familiar names - and we're getting enquiries right now from some very big brands who are approaching us at this stage - but it's also going to be integrating exciting new retail concepts.
"Retail has to adapt. You can't just do shopping any more. It has to be an experience.
"It has to be somewhere people can go for a leisure activity - there's going to be leisure, there's going to be restaurants, a real mix.
"Crucially it will have that local feel to it. So the local independent traders - some of the ones we've relocated to Castle Square and other places around Elephant & Castle - they're going to be a big part of that as well.
"It's about creating something that's exciting and vibrant and relevant to the local community."
The meeting heard that the shopping centre site redevelopment is due to be completed in 2026, with the new London College of Communication building expected to open at the start of the 2027/2028 academic year, if not sooner.
If Transport for London can find funds to fit out the new tube station ticket hall, that could open in summer 2029.
The redevelopment of the current LCC building on the western site is expected to take until 2030 to complete.
North Walworth ward councillor Martin Seaton, who hosted the meeting, said that the old shopping centre - which closed in 2020 - had been "a wonderful place" but "very antiquated and needed to be brought into the 21st century".
