Printworks: All that's fit to print

Friend of BC, James, has been to The Printworks in Canada Water and after an all-day rave at our new resident 'culture destination', he is keen to tell you how impressed he was by the soundproofing. The party animal writes:

We descended on London’s newest, and perhaps only thing resembling a super club – the arts venue Printworks – on Saturday, for the second in their Spring series of day parties.

Formerly a printing facility for the London Evening Standard and Metro, located a short walk from Canada Water station, the 16 acre site has the capacity to host 5000 people, although for this particular sold-out party the attendance was a mere 2,500.

Big things had been written about Printworks in the lead-up to its opening in early February and it’s safe to say that all expectations were completely and utterly exceeded. A world-class DJ line up, on this occasion playing a mixture of house, disco and techno, a sound system that was loud and clear but didn’t leave your ears ringing afterwards and a truly spectacular light and laser show combined with slick and efficient organisation to produce the best clubbing experience my friends and I have experienced anywhere in the world – Berlin included.

The best part of all? In the smoking area outside you couldn’t hear a thing, so the neighbours hopefully won’t be bothered too much. Well done to LWE, the promotion company behind the event – it’s great to finally see a new London venue having a license approved, rather than revoked.

Printworks, Canada Water

The opening weekend

Printworks is a new 5,000-capacity music and arts venue on the site of the old Associated Newspaper printing presses in Canada Water. Following an opening party this month, its line-up in March includes events hosted by Melt Festival, Nina Kravitz and The Hydra.

Printworks has doubled as a Death Star and a zombie rat run in recent Secret Cinema productions and anyone who experienced it in either of those incarnations will attest to its versatility. It's a huge campus and a massive asset for South East London, which is not over-blessed with major venues.

Hit The Floor writes:

"The venue will undoubtedly put London nightlife firmly back on the worldwide map... Was this the best time to open such an establishment when the whole night-time community was being scrutinised and pulled apart? The answer is yes. Yes, this is a perfect time.

"The opening of Printworks has not only solidified the idea that not only is London club culture going anywhere, but we now finally have a venue to rival our European counterparts."

"Printworks comes to us from the team behind LWE, Junction 2 and the now infamous daytime raves at Tobacco Dock... LWE is currently unrivalled and are consistently raising the bar and expectations for what it means to host a successful rave."

For full details, click here.

Almost useful - the night tube

This is TfL's official map of the night tube service, starting in September. It skirts Greater Brockley, stopping at Canada Water.

This will become slightly more useful if the night buses connecting that station (currently the subject of a consultation exercise) with Bellingham get expanded. It will get a lot more useful when the East London Line starts running a night service to New Cross Gate from 2017.

Canada Water and the Old Kent Road targeted for intense development

The Mayor of London is currently consulting on proposed alterations to The London Plan - including creating new "opportunity areas" in Bromley, Old Oak Common, Harrow & Wealdstone and most significantly for us, Canada Water and the Old Kent Road.

The LP is a high-level blueprint for the future of our city. It's the reason why new office developments are increasingly clustered around main rail stations and why inner London brownfield sites have been targeted for high-density development.

"Opportunity Area" designation would mean intense and accelerated development at these locations. In the case of the OKR, the Mayor envisages a minimum of 2,500 new homes and 1,000 new jobs being located here. For Canada Water it means at least another 800 new homes and a huge new King's College campus.

The OKR designation would lend further weight to the case for a Bakerloo Line extension, which is being touted around by the Mayor, but remains unfunded. For a weeping sore like the OKR to be turned in to a residential area will require something dramatic to happen, like running the Bakerloo Line east from Elephant and Castle straight down its length, before going on to New Cross, Lewisham and Ladywell or perhaps Peckham.

The Mayor is expected to trail his infrastructure strategy in the coming weeks and publish it in the Autumn. That strategy will set out what investment is required for London to grow its population to 10 million.

New 'Decathlon' plans for Canada Water

Sellar, the developer behind the Shard has submitted plans to redevelop a site in Canada Water, currently occupied by Decathlon, with a major scheme that would include five buildings, the tallest of which would be 40 storeys.

The development, which proposes to create a cinema, gym and health centre, will sit alongside the new library and residential development next to Canada Water station and will join the new retail and leisure scheme, to create some much-needed critical mass and make Surrey Quays unrecognisable within a decade.