walk/tour
EPR Architects, 2019
Ram Quarter , Bubbling Well Square, SW18 1UQ
The UK’s oldest brewery site, home to Young’s for almost 200 years. Architect's talk covers history, planning, redevelopment, design and materiality, and includes the new public square, boulevard, riverwalk, new buildings & restored listed buildings.
Wandsworth Town
28, 44, 220, 270, 485, 37, 87, 89, 156
Trains run to Wandsworth Town station every few minutes from Waterloo, passing through Clapham Junction. There is a public car park (paid and ticketed) in Southside shopping centre, opposite the south entrance to Ram Quarter. All bus stops, and Southside shopping centre, are within a 300-metre walk of the meeting point. Wandsworth Town station is a 550-metre walk from the meeting point.
The development by Greenland UK has won a Wandsworth Design Award - awarded by the local Wandsworth Borough Council - for great design and building projects which positively contribute to the local community. The judging panel included the Wandsworth Access Association.
Ram Quarter is a residential-led mixed-use masterplan, developed by Greenland UK, and has transformed the historic Young’s brewery site into a new urban quarter. The development celebrates the strong heritage of the Ram Brewery buildings and creates a vibrant new heart in Wandsworth town centre.
Beer has been produced on the site since at least 1533, making it the oldest continuously operating brewery in the UK. Despite Young’s closing in 2006, a small-scale brewery was maintained on site during the construction period to ensure that the development retained this legacy. Set within the Grade II* listed brewery complex is a new brewery, a heritage centre and accommodation for independent retailers, restaurants and exclusive loft-style apartments.
The listed buildings have been carefully integrated into the Ram Quarter masterplan, which was conceived as a series of interlinked public urban spaces and with the previously inaccessible riverfront of the River Wandle now featuring enhanced biodiversity, planted terraces, footpaths and a new pedestrian bridge.
Ten lower-level buildings adopt and reinterpret the materials, forms and scale of the existing industrial structures to define the urban edges of the public realm. At ground level, the elevations are enlivened with retail units to create a vibrant and active environment, whilst above, the high-quality residential accommodation benefits from the more tranquil setting of private roof gardens.
EPR’s design uses a restricted palette of materials: brick for the façades, and copper or zinc for the roofs. This selection is a response to the character of the conservation area and the historic use of these materials within the old brewery.
Ram Quarter is the site of the UK's oldest continuously-operating brewery: records date back to at least 1533, although brewing almost certainly pre-dates that. The on-site Heritage Centre contains many fascinating artefacts from the site's history. Visits to the Heritage Centre can be booked separately from the Open House tours.
