Ram Quarter, Greenland’s flagship redevelopment of the former Young’s brewery in Wandsworth, has participated for the fourth year running in London's popular Open House festival – welcoming more visitors to the site than ever before.
Open House is an annual two-week celebration of design and architecture, and marked its thirtieth anniversary last year. It features events, tours and open days of special buildings and sites across all 33 London boroughs. The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors, from London and around the country and from overseas too, and is the most popular event of its kind in the world.The tours at Ram Quarter are popular and have always been fully-booked in previous years. This year was no different: the initial tours were all soon fully booked, and further spaces were released which enabled a record number of visitors to be guided around the site.
It was a glorious sunny day, and visitors were welcomed by Greenland in the development's main Bubbling Well Square, before being passed to EPR Architects for an architectural guided tour of the development. EPR developed the design and masterplan for Ram Quarter, and the tours covered the history of the site from its two centuries as the former home of Young’s brewery to its more recent redevelopment creating hundreds of new homes and a vibrant heart for Wandsworth Town centre. The planning process was outlined, and the site's design and architecture including the building materials and colours and the site's new access points were explained.
The tours began in the historic square, where EPR architect Antony Stivala explained how a residential-led, mixed-use masterplan has transformed the brewery complex into an award-winning new urban quarter, creating a contemporary design which reflects Ram Quarter’s industrial past. Visitors proceeded up the main boulevard and back along the riverside terrace, ending full-circle back in the Square at the historic listed buildings which now house the onsite Heritage Centre and Sambrook's brewery. Groups were also shown the site's historic beam engine, inside one of the restored listed buildings in an area not normally accessible to the public. Every part of these magnificent beam engines was made and shaped by hand. The older engine is thought to be the oldest of its type anywhere in the world still in its original location and never having been out of working order.
Alongside Ram Quarter, this year’s Open House programme featured events and locations as eclectic as Hogarth's House, the Van Gogh House, the Royal College of Nursing, the Bank of England Museum, the Royal Courts of Justice, and a Great Fire of London walking tour.