Artist's impression: new Woolwich Centre
The new centre planned for Woolwich is a key part of the Council's drive to continue to put customer service at the heart of Council business.
The new Woolwich development will have an integrated service centre where you will be able to carry out your Council business face-to-face, via the web or the telephone and all in one place. There will also be a modern and expanded library as part of the development.
A feature of the building will be a viewing gallery which can hold meetings for up to 200 people.
The building will house a Business Centre where elected members, Council officers and partners will be able to hold meetings and carry out activities for the benefit of the community.
The historic Woolwich Town Hall across the road will continue to host Council meetings and other public events. It will also have improved facilities for the public.
Demolition of old offices
Demolition of the old Wellington Street offices has now been completed. The site is being prepared for the main construction of the new centre, to start in late summer 2008.
Transforming local services
There will be a range of improvements when the work is completed:
- The integrated Service Centre: the ground floor will have a service centre where Council services are clustered into four main service points - Environment, Finance, General and Life.
Trained staff will be there to deal with your enquiries, or if necessary service specialists will be able to assist you. You will be able to use other means of accessing Council services via the web or the telephone.
- Customer Contact Centre: contact centre staff will handle the many thousands of phone calls, emails and other correspondence that the Council receives every year.
- Woolwich Library: there will be a major town centre library to support lifelong learning. This facility will be twice the size of the current Woolwich library and have facilities such as a self-issue service for books, CDs and DVDs loans and internet access.
- Greenwich Gallery: the gallery will be a striking public exhibition and meeting space and will be available for local events and public meetings.
- Value for money: The Centre will have 1600 work stations for 2000 staff, who will be primarily Back Office staff. The other Back Office staff will be based at Riverside House East where we will have 600 workstations for 800 staff. The Centre will have 90 meeting rooms with no cellular offices.
- The Council is reducing the costs of accommodation, whilst improving the services you receive and the value for money given.
Clean, green, efficient and improving the environment
Our new centre will have a strong energy efficiency focus. It will limit energy consumption and promote renewable resources, limiting the overall carbon footprint of the building. Green measures will include intelligent use of natural ventilation and lighting, heat recovery systems, water harvesting and solar panels.
Green and brown roofs will also be a key part of the scheme. These not only contribute to the energy performance of the building but also provide welcoming habitats for local birds and insects.
From design, to construction and operation, the highest environmental standards will deliver a building with 45% less carbon emissions than current national standards.
There will also be a new landscaped public square between the Centre Offices and a refurbished Town Hall for you to enjoy.
Artist's impressions
You can download artist's impressions of the Woolwich Civic Centre below.
Woolwich civic centre interior view (pdf 55kb)
Woolwich civic centre exterior view (pdf 65kb)
You will need a copy of Adobe Reader to download these documents. See the Useful links on the right to download a free copy of the reader.
Further information
For more information, please contact our modernisation team using the contact information in the menu to the right.