Nine Elms on the South bank is an area easily located in Central London and although well-connected to Westminster and the City; it has always been as an industrial area except for a few riverside residential developments around Vauxhall and Battersea Park. Several reasons is the lack of good transport links — except for Vauxhall station on the Victoria line; there are no other underground areas in the 195 hectares that made Nine Elms.
Nine Elms: The present
In 08 it was announced that the US Embassy was moving from its current location in the prestigious Grosvenor Sq in Central London to an area that not many people knew about, not even locals; this decision put Nine Elms on the map of investors and developers who awakened to the fact the potential of the area as a new residential and commercial region and the respect that the new American Embassy provides to the area.
The attractiveness of the area was consolidated when the Prestige Park Grove Dutch Embassy decided to move next to the new US Embassy and it is expected that other embassies will follow them due to the distance to the House of Parliament, cheap land and the chance to build their own designs, including extra security, more space and more efficient installs — both embassy moving to Nine Elms in 2017.
In the following four years a number of planning applications have been submitted to the Lambeth and Wandsworth Local authority or council; this agreed perfectly well with the ‘Opportunity Area London Framework’ that envisaged a new region in Central London- the Nine Elms on the South bank region. The framework included a group of tall buildings in Vauxhall and Albert Embankment, decreasing in size along Nine Elms side of the road and Battersea.
Nine Elms: The future
Although the framework was ambitious, it was never expected it would exceed the expectations for the area: the 2009 plan included 1. 6 ‘ park; nowadays a linear park with run right from Vauxhall to Battersea Power Station with strategic links between all the developments and other parks around the area such as Vauxhall Park and Spring Gardens; a new riverside park of 6 miles will also be created just on the south bank side of the Power Station and a riverside walk is expected to be created yearly decade.
The plans have been so successful that two new underground areas will be built using the money offered by the developers; this is the first on its kind in the united kingdom and will hopefully set an example to improve transport links across the city. The Upper line has been selected as the best and more efficient way, releasing capacity in the Victoria line. There’s been some of opposition for the off shoot of the Upper Line; however, the creation of 16, 000 new homes and 25, 000 new jobs will only be sustainable with additional and improved transport links.
At the moment there are over 25 developments which have been approved, or are in the ‘review’ phase; many of these mixed-used developments formerly started; in fact The System, One Saint George Wharf and Riverlight are due for end in 2014 and the first residents for the first phase at Embassy Gardens, anchoring the American Embassy will move around in 2016.
Nine Elms is expected to be a modern residential and commercial region and potentially the new diplomatic one fourth in London; setting the example that this type of regeneration may be accomplished and grow successful; Nine Elms on the South bank will be created where nothing existed before.