Overview
- The social-rent scheme for over‑65s in Southwark was named the UK's best new building, edging out the Elizabeth Tower restoration and other high-profile shortlisted works.
- The development comprises roughly 57–59 apartments arranged around a courtyard, with a double-height garden room, community kitchen, glazed galleries, and roof gardens designed to reduce isolation.
- United St Saviour’s Charity delivered the project with Southwark Council and developer JTRE, and the charity will manage the almshouse in perpetuity.
- At the same ceremony, the project won the RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing and United St Saviour’s was named RIBA Client of the Year.
- The jury praised the scheme as an imaginative answer to housing shortages and loneliness among older people, with sector voices urging wider adoption and formal planning recognition of almshouses.