Glengall Road

Precast construction delivers programme savings against the academic calendar on a constrained site

Glengall Road is a new build, higher education development in Peckham which provides 2375m² of educational workspace, amenities and commercial areas as well as 676 rooms of student accommodation. Located adjacent to Burgess Park, the site is located within the wider Old Kent Road Area Action Plan and has a previous history of industrial use.

The scheme consists of 15 storeys plus a basement and provides courtyards, roof terraces and external spaces tying into the public realm. The structure is a combination of insitu concrete frame at the lower levels and precast walls and slabs for the levels housing the accommodation above.

The site is located over an existing power tunnel and a new power tunnel which was constructed at the same time as the groundworks were carried out. This involved extensive liaison with National Grid to obtain the Asset Protection Agreement by inputting into the tunnel impact assessment and monitoring strategy for the new and existing tunnels. The substructure is designed to transfer the loads over the exclusion zones below.

Walsh were involved at an early stage to input into the building layout. Larger loads from the taller parts of the building were kept away from the area over the power tunnels to limit the impact on the transfer structure. Likewise, the basement was moved to avoid the area over the tunnel exclusion zones to limit the required excavation depth and thus limit the amount of material to be removed from site, saving on cost and programme.