Driscoll House, New Kent Road

I saw the scaffolding going up on the building this morning.

I was wondering if anyone knew, has a decision been made on what to do with Driscoll House?

Probably the best thing that could happen to this building is that it would be turned into flats. Yes, I said that.

There have been workmen in there for a few weeks now. Is it listed? I can't remember.

Auntie Pat wrote:

There have been workmen in there for a few weeks now. Is it listed? I can't remember.

Yes, it is listed, but Southwark have given listed building consent for quite a lot of the building to go.

It's really a nice building -- and the rowhouses in front of it are lovely as well. If only that hideous flyover and equally hideous subway in front of this part of the road were gone, I think you'd see this part of NKR (the Driscoll House/rowhouses on right side and the rowhouses on the left side) develop very nicely.

Right now, it's impossible. Unless you want to smell poop and pee in the subway, you can't cross the Berlin Wall of NKR.

Capitalizing "Subway" suggests it's the sandwich shop rather than a tunnel for pedestrians.

longlaner - I've tweaked the auto-link function so that use of the word subway is no longer linked to the restaurant section.

A lift is being put in and other internal refurbishment to make the grade II listed building usable again as a hostel; see: http://planningonline.southwark.gov.uk/AcolNetCGI.exe?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=9543998 for full planning info.

Just had word to say that Driscoll House will reopen as Rest Up London in the next few weeks: http://restuplondon.com

Thank you so much for the heads up, I would love to stay there on my next trip to London. I'm really curious to see the changes for myself.