Embassy Gardens

Last updated

A block of flats in Embassy Gardens Pointy building in Nine Elms (49287243798).jpg
A block of flats in Embassy Gardens

Embassy Gardens is a residential and business development built by Ballymore Group in the Nine Elms regeneration zone in London, England, surrounding the United States Embassy building opened in 2017. It features the transparent Sky Pool for swimming, which is suspended 115 feet in the air between the development's prominent buildings. [1]

Contents

On 16 February 2012, Wandsworth Council approved Ballymore Group's plans for the 15-acre development. Embassy Gardens was intended to provide "up to 1,982 new homes alongside shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, business space, a 100 bed hotel, a health centre, children's playgrounds and sports pitches". [2]

In 2014, it was reported that Ballymore had engaged Lazard and CBRE Group to raise about €2.5bn to fund the Embassy Gardens development. [3]

In June 2017, 25 apartments were released for sale by EcoWorld Ballymore with prices for the homes that overlook a sky pool starting at £1million. [4] [5] The outdoor swimming pool is suspended 10 storeys high and acts as a bridge between two apartment blocks. It enables residents to swim between two buildings with views of the London Eye and Westminster Palace. [6]

In March 2021, Embassy Gardens residents were reported by the Financial Times as feeling "trapped" in their apartments, with one resident reporting that the service charge had increased 58% in five years to an annual charge of just over £6,500. This was an increase of between 10% and 15% per annum, well above the UK's inflation rate of 2.9% per annum during that period. [7]

Sky Pool

Embassy Gardens Phase 2 with the Sky Pool Cmglee London Embassy Gardens pool.jpg
Embassy Gardens Phase 2 with the Sky Pool

The "Sky Pool" is a swimming pool that acts as a 14-metre (46 ft) bridge between two high-rise buildings at Embassy Gardens. It is 35 metres (115 ft) above the ground, and it was the first "floating pool" of its kind. It is for residents, and is not open to the general public. [8] [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Unité dhabitation</i> 1940s modernist residential housing design principle by Le Corbusier and Nadir Afonso

The Unité d'habitation is a modernist residential housing typology developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afonso. It formed the basis of several housing developments throughout Europe designed by Le Corbusier and sharing the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grosvenor Square</span> Square in the Mayfair district of London, England

Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of Westminster, Greater London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable residences in the 18th century. In the 20th it had an American and Canadian diplomatic presence, and currently is mixed use, commercial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tooting Bec Lido</span> Lido in London Borough of Wandsworth, United Kingdom

Tooting Bec Lido is an open-air fresh water swimming pool in South London. It is the largest fresh water swimming pool by surface area in the United Kingdom, being 100 yd (91.4 m) long and 33 yd (30.2 m) wide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nine Elms</span> Human settlement in England

Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It lies on the River Thames, with Battersea to the west, South Lambeth to the south and Vauxhall to the east. Across the Thames is Pimlico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A3036 road</span> Road in southwest London

The A3036 is an A road in London, England, running from Waterloo to Wandsworth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St George Wharf Tower</span> Skyscraper in Vauxhall, London, England

St George Wharf Tower, also known as the Vauxhall Tower, is a residential skyscraper in Vauxhall, London, and part of the St George Wharf development. At 181 metres (594 ft) tall with 50 storeys, it is the 20th-tallest building in London and was the tallest residential building in the United Kingdom on its completion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swimming pool</span> Artificial water basin for swimming

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground or built above ground, and may be found as a feature aboard ocean-liners and cruise ships. In-ground pools are most commonly constructed from materials such as concrete, natural stone, metal, plastic, composite or fiberglass, and can be of a custom size and shape or built to a standardized size, the largest of which is the Olympic-size swimming pool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Providence Wharf</span> Residential in Tower Hamlets, London

The New Providence Wharf is a residential development in the Blackwall district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, at the north end of the Blackwall Tunnel. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and is managed by Ballymore, a property development company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Terrace</span> Apartment building complex in Manhattan, New York

London Terrace is an apartment building complex in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It occupies an entire city block on Manhattan's West Side, bounded by Ninth Avenue to the east, Tenth Avenue to the west, 23rd Street to the south, and 24th Street to the north. Construction began in late 1929 and cost more than $25 million on what was to be the largest apartment buildings in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballymore Group</span> Ireland-based international property development company

Ballymore Group is an Ireland-based international property development company. The majority of the company's employees and business activities are located in the UK.

Sean Mulryan is an Irish property developer, and the founder and chairman and CEO of the Ballymore Group, a Dublin-based international property development company. He was named on the Estates Gazette 2017 'Power List', which lists the 50 most powerful individuals in Britain's commercial real estate sector. Mulryan was the only Irish person to be named on the list, which included US billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the chairman of CC Land, Cheung Chung-kiu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wardian London</span> Residential in Canary Wharf, London

Wardian London is an ultra-luxury residential complex located in the centre of Canary Wharf’s financial district from Eco World-Ballymore and designed by architect firm Glenn Howells. The scheme consists of two skyscrapers that completed in 2020, is one of the tallest residential developments in London and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Knightsbridge Apartments</span> Residential in London, England

The Knightsbridge Apartments is a luxury apartment complex in Knightsbridge, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Central Park</span> Shopping mall in New South Wales, Australia

One Central Park is a mixed-use dual high-rise building located in the Sydney suburb of Chippendale in New South Wales, Australia. Developed as a joint venture between Frasers Property and Sekisui House, it was constructed by Besix Watpac as the first stage of the Central Park urban renewal project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Nine Elms</span> Mixed-use skyscraper

One Nine Elms is a mixed-use skyscraper scheme currently under construction in Nine Elms, London. It was originally developed by Wanda One, a UK subsidiary company of Dalian Wanda, until they sold the project to R&F Properties, another Chinese firm in 2018. It was designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). The development replaces two towers on the site built in the 1970s called Market Towers and forms part of a wider redevelopment of the Nine Elms area of London. The development consists of two towers: the 57-storey City Tower contains 334 homes, while the 42-storey River Tower contains a 203-room Park Hyatt luxury hotel and 103 luxury Park Hyatt-branded apartments. Upon completion in 2024, One Nine Elms will become one of the tallest residential developments in London and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sky Gardens Nine Elms</span> Residential in London, England

Sky Gardens Nine Elms is a residential and retail tower in Nine Elms, within the borough of Lambeth, London. The scheme has been designed by architects Careyjones Chapmantolcher (CJCT) and developed by Fraser Property Development UK. Its construction was part of a wider regeneration of the Nine Elms area of London. The building is 120 metres (390 ft) in height.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highpoint (building)</span> Residential tower in London

Highpoint is a 142-metre, 46-storey, 458-apartment residential tower in Elephant and Castle in the London Borough of Southwark in London on the site of the London Park Hotel.

Royal Wharf is a residential and commercial development in Newham, London located on the north bank of the River Thames. It is built on the former site of Minoco Wharf and is near the Thames Barrier, west of Thames Barrier Park, and close to both West Silvertown and Pontoon Dock DLR stations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sky Pool, London</span> Swimming pool bridging two buildings

The Sky Pool is a swimming pool at the Embassy Gardens development in the Nine Elms region of Wandsworth, a borough of southwest London. It is suspended 115 feet (35 m) above the ground and forms a bridge between two tall apartment buildings. Unveiled in May 2021, the pool was criticized as emblematic of economic inequalities in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Putney Leisure Centre</span>

Putney Leisure Centre is a public sports complex in Putney, in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

References

  1. Cherner, Jessica (30 April 2021). "Suspended 115 Feet in the Air, the World's First Floating Pool Is Unveiled in London". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  2. "Embassy Gardens plans approved". UK: Wandsworth Council . Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  3. "Nick Webb: Mulryan is close to wiping slate clean - Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  4. Enfield, Laura (2 June 2017). "Homes with a 25m Sky Pool at Embassy Gardens are set to go on sale". thewharf. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  5. "Yoga rooms, sky pools and film clubs... how property developers are chasing the millionaire millennials". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  6. "A world first: Battersea flats launch overlooking world's first glass-bottomed 'sky pool'". Homes and Property. 30 May 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  7. "'We are trapped': residents hit with soaring charges at luxury London homes". FinancialTimes. 13 March 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  8. "Sky Pool Embassy Gardens London". CNN. 26 April 2021.
  9. "Londoners Cool Off In Sky Pool Suspended 115ft In The Air". The Guardian. June 2021.
  10. "The 'World's First' Floating Pool Is Open – But There's A Catch". HuffPost. Amy Packham. June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.

51°28′55″N0°07′59″W / 51.482°N 0.133°W / 51.482; -0.133