Goldsmiths plans student tower for Brockley Cross

We've seen a flurry of major projects and proposals for Brockley in recent months, clustered around Brockley Station, but this is the one we've been waiting for - the biggest and potentially most exciting of them all.

Goldsmiths is planning a 13-storey golden tower to replace Howarth's Timber Yard at Brockley Cross, a deceptively large site, which was previously the subject of a masterplan by architects ACQ.  The work will involve creating a new "active frontage"on Shardeloes Road, which will provide access to the site.

The public pre-consultation launches later this month, but we've been sent this image and a few outline details by a BC reader connected with the project. Based on this - slightly disorientating - image we love the look of it. With tall buildings dotted around stations in Deptford, Lewisham and Surrey Quays, there is plenty of precedent for a building of this scale.

In total, BC understands it will contain a total of 700 student apartments and a number of new amenities, including a 'people's supermarket' that students will be able to run themselves and an 'Occupation Room' dedicated to student activism and protest. This space will provide semi-permanent accommodation for a further 30 students.

The main building will be called the Costume Store, in recognition of Goldsmiths' theatre and fashion heritage.

Universities are now locked in a fierce competition for student applicants and the slow pace of Goldsmiths' plans to develop its New Cross campus means drastic action is required. The Council, meanwhile, has been trying to find a developer for this tricky site (which straddles a railway line) for years.

We'll bring you full details of the proposal as soon as they appear.