Work in Progress: Living in a postcard at One Tower Bridge

While many new homes boast of their panoramic views across London, none are quite as iconic as the sight from One Tower Bridge. This landmark development from Berkeley is being built right next to one of the world’s most famous river crossings. 

 

It’s a mixed use site so, if you’re not planning on living there, you can still enjoy the restaurants, cafés, arts spaces, shops and offices that are set to occupy space on the ground floor. An Asian boutique hotel chain, Lalit, has also confirmed its tenancy in a part of the building and the developer is hoping that, when the scheme is fully completed  in a couple of years’ time, it will extend the South Bank’s cultural draw all the way to Tower Bridge. 

 

But in the present, Cambridge House, the flagship building right on the riverbank, has opened up two show apartments for prospective buyers. 

One Tower Bridge is an unusual prospect, not only due to the variety of businesses moving into the space, but also the scale of the project; it’s quite rare for such a huge number of new homes to be built so close to a major landmark in central London these days. 

 

Eight apartment blocks comprising 356 two and three bedroom homes and a collection of penthouses are available and they’re being snapped up in a hurry. Approximately 86 per cent of the units have been sold, according to sales manager Douglas Acton, who estimates that around 75 per cent of them have gone to UK buyers (foreign investors just can’t resist the allure of traditional prime central London locations such as Chelsea, Mayfair and Knightsbridge).

 

The development features traditional parquet-floored interiors and buildings named after royal houses (Windsor, Tudor, York, Lancaster, Cambridge, Wessex and Sandringham). 

On the day I went to look around, I was offered a cup of tea by a tweed-clad Harrods concierge who will have the unenviable task of catering to the residents’ every whim 24 hours a day. Other luxury hotel-like facilities include an indoor heated pool, a spa, a gym and even an “urban golf experience” underground (I’m told it involves motion-sensor controllers and a big screen).

 

Most apartments come with at least one terrace but there’s a price premium on the view. Still, Acton says it’s all about taste and some buyers prefer waking up to Potters Field Park than the river. 

 

It’s certainly an unusually peaceful part of town, especially as the increasingly trendy cobbled streets and high end eateries of Shad Thames are only a five minute walk and City Hall is right next door. 

 

The real excitement, though, is still to come, as we’re awaiting the £16m duplex penthouses to be built, whose roof gardens will make it feel as though the towers are just another turret in your castle.