Tesco plans Lewisham revamp
Tesco has revealed plans to redevelop its central Lewisham supermarket. Presumably mindful of the major influx of potential customers being lured to within walking distance by the Silk Mills and Renaissance developments, the designs place a lot of emphasis on improving pedestrian links to the shop.
Tesco's pitch is:
- A modernised store offering a first class shopping experience within an improved environment
- A completely redesigned modern entrance opening out onto the Silk Mills path
- Landscape improvements to the walkway alongside the River Quaggy, creating an area of public space
- Enhancing the river with additional planting and gravel to improve its flow
- A completely redesigned car park with improved lighting to provide better security and safety
- Separate dedicated entrances for pedestrians, buses and cars to make access easier and safer
By Tesco standards, the designs are relatively modernist, eschewing their usual kitsch stylings. And the public space improvements look like they'll be an improvement.
They also say, in an unhelpfully cryptic way:
Our plans allow for the future longer-term development of the island site and the adjacent surface car park to develop new homes and create a new town centre neighbourhood to meet Lewisham Council's aspirations.
If anyone knows anything more about these longer-term plans (which sound far more significant than the ones the website promotes), please share.
[Full disclosure: As I've mentioned many times before, the agency I work for, Edelman, does a small amount of work for Sainsbury's]
