A revised mixed-use proposal for Elizabeth House Waterloo redevelopment has been put to public consultation, with developer HB Reavis and architect PLP Architecture unveiling plans that would retain the existing building’s structure while creating, in their words, ‘a vibrant destination and connected gateway to Waterloo station’.
The scheme replaces a previously consented proposal by AHMM and was launched on 26 August. A planning application is expected to be submitted in early 2027.
What the Elizabeth House Waterloo redevelopment proposes
The PLP scheme is broadly mixed-use, combining two hotels, purpose-built student accommodation described as ‘equivalent to 300 private rented homes’, an unspecified number of built-to-rent homes, shops, leisure uses and offices with 10 per cent affordable workspace. At ground level, three new pedestrian routes would be established from York Road, The Curve, Leake Street and the South Bank through to Waterloo station, removing Elizabeth House ‘as a barrier between the station and the surrounding area’. A new public square forms part of the same ground-level intervention.
HB Reavis and PLP say the front of Waterloo station would be improved through ‘new shops, restaurants and leisure spaces to create an active streetscape and a welcoming destination to stimulate activity throughout the day and evening’.
According to the Elizabeth House Waterloo official site, the office element could support up to 11,000 jobs, and the scheme is projected to deliver approximately £49 million in Mayoral and Borough Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). Both figures give a clearer sense of the economic weight being placed on this long-contested riverside site.
Steven Skinner, chief executive officer at HB Reavis Developments, said: ‘Waterloo is one of the most exciting places in central London. We have spent a long time looking closely at the site and what this part of Lambeth really needs. We are excited to share our ideas for a mixed-use scheme, including new homes, workspaces, shops and places for people to come together that will make this a genuine destination.’
A site with a long planning history
The Elizabeth House Waterloo redevelopment has been passed between several architectural practices over roughly two decades. Allies and Morrison worked on an early scheme in the 2000s, proposing separate buildings referred to as the Three Sisters. RHWL, working on an earlier scheme during the same period, envisaged a sail-shaped building. Neither progressed.
David Chipperfield Architects subsequently worked on a proposal for London & Regional and Chelsfield, which secured approval from Lambeth Council in 2014 for 132,000m² of new space, including 142 new homes and a range of office and retail uses across two new buildings. The Chipperfield scheme rose to around 30 storeys with lower elements of approximately 14 and 11 storeys.
AHMM took over the project in December 2017, when Chipperfield had been involved with the site for seven years. AHMM’s consented scheme, approved by Lambeth Council in 2019, comprised 111,484m² of offices, new public space connecting Waterloo station with the South Bank, a ‘garden promenade’ accessed from the station concourse, and new retail. It reached a similar height profile to the Chipperfield proposal but was never built.
HB Reavis bought the Elizabeth House site in 2017. The developer is already active in the immediate vicinity: as reported by Bisnow, Lambeth Council’s Planning Applications Committee granted approval for HB Reavis’s redevelopment of 10 Leake Street into a 233-room purpose-built student accommodation development. That 17-storey scheme sits nearby Elizabeth House and secured its go-ahead earlier this year.
The embodied carbon question will become central once PLP moves toward a planning submission. The decision to retain the existing structure is an approach that, in principle, avoids the whole-life carbon cost of full demolition and rebuild, though the technical extent of that retention and the associated carbon modelling have not yet been disclosed. With a CIL contribution of approximately £49 million projected and a planning application anticipated in early 2027, Lambeth’s committee will have the full programme in front of it before long.
