Residential development reinvents almshouse concept for the 21st Century

Appleby Blue Almshouses in Southwark, London – with landscape design by Tenderstream member Grant Associates – has been shortlisted for the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize. Commissioned by United St Saviour's Charity (UStSC) and designed by Witherford Watson Mann architects, the project reimagines the almshouse - a form of sheltered housing by a private charity offering low-cost residential accommodation to the elderly - for the 21st century, creating affordable homes for older people within a setting that champions nature, community and wellbeing. 

The building is designed to encourage residents and non-residents to come together through its open nature and progression of places to share. Grant Associates focused on bringing nature into the living environment, helping to create a sanctuary in the heart of the city. The generous double-height Garden Room for shared activities links the public activity of the street to the more reflective interior of the block. This light-filled room creates an invitation to the neighbourhood to engage in programmed intergenerational activities. The Garden Room opens on to the Garden Court, conceived as an abstract woodland glade with a gently cascading linear water feature running between a grove of gingko trees. A roof terrace on the second floor features a productive garden with raised beds for growing herbs and vegetables.

Both gardens will be managed by a local gardening group, and UStSC is working alongside research partners at Bournemouth University to explore how multigenerational, socially inclusive activities can be co-created with older people around food growing, cooking and meal sharing, to improve their health, wellbeing and social connectedness.

Steve Platts, director of planning and growth at Southwark Council, stated: “Appleby Blue is a triumphant example of what can be achieved when the public, private, and voluntary sectors work together. It offers an outstanding facility for our older residents in Southwark and welcoming space for different generations to come together and enhance the sense of local community.”

Lucy Nordberg
Tenderstream Head of Research

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