Journal

“It is important to emphasise that Maydew House is not an unsafe place in which to live. If left un-disturbed the asbestos is perfectly safe,” Cllr Ian Wingfield, 2010

The 26 storeys of Maydew House loom over Southwark Park. It’s a building I’ve walked past frequently over the past decade or so. It’s not an iconic post-war building, but it does have a certain quality with crisp, heavily-scored horizontal balconies and a similarly crisp (not exactly Trellick Tower, but not bad) stair core clinging to the side.

Recently scaffolding has started to engulf it as preparations begin for the building’s demolition

Remarkably Maydew House has now been vacant for almost a decade. Southwark decanted all 144 households in 2015. The council wanted to make improvements to the building, but apparently couldn’t without disturbing asbestos. Some dispute this.

In 2012 they explored alternative options; refurbishment, selling off the block, or demolishing it. Ultimately they selected the first option. Works were undertaken to strip the building back to its structure and construct a new sub-station.

Proposals were drawn up to refurbish the building and add 24 flats in a rooftop extension. The proposals received planning consent in 2018. These works were estimated to cost £42million. A subsequent design without the extension received consent in 2021. By 2023 the estimated cost of the works had risen to £70million.

With this sum deemed unpalatable, Southwark - having already spent £15million - made the decision to spend another couple of million demolishing the building. As it stands there are no proposals that I’m aware of to replace it.

In summary;

• Circa £17million spent
• A building standing empty for almost a decad
• 144 families uprooted
• A net loss of 144 flats
• God knows how much embodied carbon lost

This seems absolutely crackers. Development isn’t a perfect science, and there are challenging mitigating circumstances, but faced with the dual crises, of housing and climate, one would have to imagine there’s a better solution.