Three-strong design team for £1bn Croydon mall

Three firms have been lined up to form the design team on the hotly-anticipated £1bn Westfield and Hammerson shopping mall in Croydon, south London.

Building understands cost consultant Sweett Group, architect Leonard Design Architects and engineer Waterman are all close to securing roles on the scheme.

Westfield and Hammerson dramatically united to form a joint venture to redevelop the tired 1960s Whitgift Centre in Croydon in January.

The partnership agreement ended an 18-month stand-off between the two developers over control of the development site.

The Croydon scheme is the largest planned retail scheme in the UK. It will provide around two million sq ft of redeveloped space and will have a catchment area of around 2.5 million people in south London and the wider region.

It will be Westfield’s third shopping centre in London, after White City in the North-west and Stratford City in the North-east.

Sweett specialises in retail schemes and was cost consultant on the one million ft2 Trinity Leeds shopping centre in Leeds for Land Securities, which opened last week.

Leonard Design Architects masterplanned Westfield’s Stratford City. The firm was founded by David Leonard, previously UK head of design at Westfield, in 2006.