The Aylesbury was built between 1963 and 1974 as one of the largest council estates in Europe, roughly 2,700 homes of system-built concrete slab blocks laid across Walworth. Its replacement is the biggest estate regeneration programme in the UK, and in March 2026 it changed shape. Southwark Council and Notting Hill Genesis restructured their partnership: NHG will finish three remaining plots totalling 1,664 homes, and the council goes back to market for the rest. Phase 2B is the large one, consented for 614 homes across five blocks of five to twenty-six storeys, with Maccreanor Lavington leading a five-practice architecture team and Hill Group as contractor.
Project Scope
Programme-wide replacement of roughly 2,700 system-built homes with 3,500-plus new homes, around half affordable, over a twenty-year partnership.
NHG-delivered package of 1,664 homes: Plot 18 at 122 homes, First Development Site C at 321 homes and 41% affordable, and Phase 2B at 614 homes and 50% affordable.
Phase 2B in five buildings from five to twenty-six storeys, 65% family-sized homes, about 400 square metres of non-residential space, plus a new park and play area.
Completed first phase of 229 homes at 84% social rent, built by Hill under a £70 million contract.
Two new parks, a new community centre and new public space within the first development site.
Unit mix from studios to five-bedroom maisonettes.
Why It Matters
Demolition-and-rebuild regeneration has been under sustained attack in London for a decade, and the Aylesbury is the case everyone argues about. The original bargain was simple enough: knock down failing system-built stock, get more homes and better homes back, keep the social tenants. Holding the second half of that bargain is what has proved expensive.
The March 2026 restructure is the honest signal. A single housing association could not carry the whole twenty-year programme at 50% affordable through a period of higher build costs and higher debt, so the programme got carved up. Whether Southwark can find partners for the remainder at the same affordability level is the real test, and the answer will shape how every other London borough writes its next regeneration contract.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Notting Hill Genesis |
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| Owner / Client | London Borough of Southwark |
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| Architect | Maccreanor Lavington (lead); Haworth Tompkins; Sergison Bates; East; Architecture Doing Place |
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| General Contractor | Hill Group |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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