Spring/summer start for £2bn Covent Garden Market regeneration

Developer St Modwen aims to have work underway on the £2bn mixed-use redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market by this summer, according to the company’s full-year results statement published last week.

Work at the site of the UK’s largest fruit, vegetable and flower market – a 57-acre area situated next to Vauxhall Cross in the Nine Elms regeneration zone – is being led by St Modwen with joint venture development partner Vinci.

Architecture giants BDP and SOM won approval for their plans from Wandsworth Council in November – a “refinement” of the scheme by Foster & Partners and Neil Tomlinson Architects which won planning in 2012.

The plans have been backed by the Covent Garden Market Authority and would see a new food quarter created as part of the new market, while around 50,000sq m (538,196sq ft) of facilities will be developed for the 200 business that operate out of the massive bazaar.

In addition, the plans include an 8ha mixed-use development which would contain the residential element, alongside 13,000sq m (139,931sq ft) of office space and 9,000sq m (96,875sq ft) of leisure and retail space.