ARRESTING DEVELOPMENT

We talk to Sammy Lee, the man whose Greenwich Peninsula project is transforming London

Even if you don’t know his name, the chances are that you’ve

seen the impact this man has had on London’s residential landscape. Former lawyer turned property developer Hong Kong-born Sammy Lee was behind the redevelopment of the Edwardian Grade Ii-listed Pearl Building into the Chancery Court hotel (now Rosewood London) and The Knightsbridge apartment complex, luxury homes set around a residents’ garden, but it’s his current project, the regeneration of Greenwich Peninsula (pictured), which is his biggest and most ambitious yet. Lee has teamed up with businessman Henry Cheng (with whom he has worked on and off for nearly 20 years) to form Knight Dragon, a new company tasked with developing a whole swathe of the capital between Canary Wharf and the Thames Barrier. When completed in around 2037, the 150-acre site will comprise seven neighbourhoods with more than 15,000 new homes, two schools, bars (Craft London, top), restaurants, and two and a half kilometres of picturesque river walkway. In short: it’s the largest single regeneration project undertaken in London.

‘For years, I think people were overwhelmed by the scale of the Greenwich site, but where others saw a derelict piece of land, I saw the blank canvas of opportunity,’ says Lee, on the thinking behind the project. ‘The city’s lack of housing is of concern to us all, so we challenged architecture firm Allies and Morrison to create a high density development that combines the energy of New York and Hong Kong but is very much rooted in what makes London great.’ For Lee, an important part of that vision is partnering with creatives, from us at Team ED ( the ELLE Decoration Style Consultancy has designed the penthouse floor of the Greenwich Peninsula Marketing Pavilion as a show apartment – see elledecoration.co.uk) to artists including Alex Chinneck, whose A Bullet From A Shooting Star sculpture (above) takes the form of an inverted electricity pylon made of steel; Morag Myerscough, who designed vibrant colourblock cranes; and most recently, Conrad Shawcross, who is making a site-specific sculpture entitled Lenticular Dazzle Camouflage. The towering piece will be constructed using perforated triangularshaped panels, each one the size of a London bus.

Lee has also always loved film – in the past he has invested in a film company and was executive producer on the Oscar-winning movie Monster – so there’s a huge new film studio at the heart of the Peninsula. ‘I’m interested in how you weave the arts into the fabric of a place,’ he adds. ‘I believe that places are a reflection of the people that live and work within them, as much, if not more than the architecture.’ ( greenwichpeninsula.co.uk).

‘ Where others saw a derelict piece of land between Canary Wharf and the Thames Barrier, I saw the blank canvas of opportunity’