London’s Regeneration Areas for New Homes: Nine Elms, Woolwich, Canary Wharf, Stratford, King’s Cross and More
Many new flats in London are not built on quiet residential streets. They go up on land that used to be something else: power stations, munitions works, docks, railway yards and Olympic venues. Berkeley Group, a developer focused on London and the South of England, builds 90% of its homes on brownfield land and has 30 large regeneration projects in progress. If you are shopping for a new-build flat in London, you will often be choosing between regeneration areas.
Several of these districts changed alongside a new transport link. The Northern line reached Battersea in 2021, the Elizabeth line opened in 2022 through Woolwich, Canary Wharf and Stratford, and King’s Cross grew around an interchange served by six Underground lines and Eurostar. Below we profile the main areas as they stand in October 2026.
This guide is about places, not prices, so it gives no price growth or rental yield figures for individual areas. Our London market guide has the figures for London as a whole.
Nine Elms, Battersea and Wandsworth
Nine Elms, in the borough of Wandsworth and partly in Lambeth, is a formerly industrial stretch of the south bank of the Thames that is now largely residential and commercial. It is home to New Covent Garden Market and, since January 2018, the United States Embassy, which moved there from Grosvenor Square. Battersea Power Station reopened in October 2022 with shops, leisure space, offices and homes.
The turning point was the Northern line extension from Kennington, which opened on 20 September 2021 with two new stations, Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station.
Further west along the river, Wandsworth Town is a major town centre where the River Wandle meets the Thames. Its riverside wharves are now lined with apartment blocks, the Southside shopping centre anchors the centre, and the former Ram Brewery site has a mixed-use redevelopment approved in 2013. It is served by Wandsworth Town rail station and by Southfields on the District line.
Royal Arsenal, Woolwich and Kidbrooke
In the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich was a munitions site and for a long time a closed military enclave. It is now open to the public and has been redeveloped for housing and community use, with historic buildings restored as homes. Berkeley’s Royal Arsenal Riverside has an Elizabeth line station on site at Woolwich, 23 minutes from Bond Street, and DLR access to London City Airport. Elizabeth line passenger services began on 24 May 2022.
Also in Greenwich, Kidbrooke is a different kind of regeneration. The former Ferrier Estate, built from 1968 and demolished by 2012, has been replaced by Kidbrooke Village, a 5,300-home scheme. Berkeley builds there. The village has more than 86 acres of parkland around it and its own station, Kidbrooke, in Zone 3, 16 minutes from London Bridge. Its build-to-rent brand, Berkeley Living, launched homes at Kidbrooke in 2025 to 2026, so some of the flats there are owned by the developer and let, which a buyer should know when thinking about the future rental competition in the same block or estate.
Canary Wharf and Wood Wharf
Canary Wharf, on the Isle of Dogs in Tower Hamlets, is a privately owned business district built on the former West India Docks. It covers around 97 acres including Wood Wharf, with about 105,000 workers and more than 150 major company headquarters. Wood Wharf has added residential towers and build-to-rent buildings, so the business district now has residents as well as office workers.
Transport is the strongest part of the case. Canary Wharf is served by the Jubilee line, the DLR, the Elizabeth line and Thames river bus services. Because Canary Wharf is in Tower Hamlets, borough rules apply: Tower Hamlets adds a 100% council tax premium to second homes, so an owner who keeps a furnished flat there that is nobody’s main home pays double the normal bill.
Stratford and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
The 2012 Olympic Park, mostly in Newham with parts in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, reopened in 2013 to 2014 as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. New neighbourhoods have been built around it: East Village, Chobham Manor, East Wick, Sweetwater, Pudding Mill and Marshgate Wharf. The East Bank cultural and education district brings UCL East and the London College of Fashion, both opened in 2023, alongside V&A East, a Sadler’s Wells theatre and BBC music studios.
Stratford station is served by the Central and Jubilee lines, the DLR, the London Overground, National Rail and the Elizabeth line, and Southeastern high-speed services call at Stratford International. For a buyer who wants east London with links in several directions, that list of lines is the main draw.
King’s Cross, Camden and Bethnal Green
King’s Cross
King’s Cross Central is a 67-acre regeneration of former railway lands in Camden, led by Argent under a masterplan approved in 2006. It includes about 1,700 homes, the Coal Drops Yard shopping area (opened 2018), Central Saint Martins art school in the Granary Building and Google’s UK headquarters. King’s Cross St Pancras is served by six Underground lines (Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Circle, Metropolitan, and Hammersmith & City), Thameslink and main-line trains, and Eurostar has run from St Pancras since November 2007.
Camden Town
Camden Town sits about 2.5 miles north-north-west of Charing Cross and is the borough’s administrative centre. Camden Market has run beside Camden Lock on the Regent’s Canal since 1973. Camden Town station is the Northern line junction where its two northern branches meet its two central London branches, and crowding on market days has led to long-standing Sunday-afternoon restrictions. Camden Road is on the London Overground. Berkeley’s Camden Goods Yard scheme won its appeal in 2026. Camden charges a 100% second-homes council tax premium from 1 April 2025, with no waiting period.
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green, in Tower Hamlets, is part of the old East End, historically a dense working district and now a mix of social housing, parks and conservation areas, with the Columbia Road Sunday flower market and the Young V&A museum. It is served by the Central line and by the London Overground’s Weaver line at Bethnal Green and Cambridge Heath.
White City and the wider pipeline
In Hammersmith and Fulham, White City has been rebuilt around the former BBC Television Centre, sold in 2012 and redeveloped with about 1,000 homes planned and BBC Studioworks returning in 2017. Westfield London opened in 2008, Imperial College has a White City campus, and the White City Place area includes St James’s White City Living, a Berkeley Group scheme. The wider area plans more than 5,000 homes. It is served by White City on the Central line, Wood Lane on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, and Shepherd’s Bush on the Central line and London Overground.
Beyond these names, the large estate regenerations continue. By 2026 Berkeley had delivered more than 2,900 homes at Woodberry Down in Hackney, near Finsbury Park, where the masterplan was raised to 6,500 homes in October 2025, and more than 1,000 at The Green Quarter in Southall, a former gasworks, where a masterplan of more than 8,000 homes was approved in January 2026. These are long programmes, delivered in phases over many years.
The areas side by side
| Area | Borough | Former use | Main rail links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nine Elms and Battersea | Wandsworth, partly Lambeth | Industrial riverside, power station | Northern line (Nine Elms, Battersea Power Station) |
| Royal Arsenal, Woolwich | Greenwich | Military munitions site | Elizabeth line, DLR |
| Kidbrooke Village | Greenwich | Ferrier Estate | Kidbrooke rail station (Zone 3) |
| Canary Wharf and Wood Wharf | Tower Hamlets | West India Docks | Jubilee line, DLR, Elizabeth line, river bus |
| Stratford and Olympic Park | Newham, with Hackney and Tower Hamlets | 2012 Olympic Park | Central, Jubilee, Elizabeth line, DLR, Overground, National Rail |
| King’s Cross | Camden | Railway lands | Six Underground lines, Thameslink, main line, Eurostar |
| White City | Hammersmith and Fulham | BBC Television Centre and surroundings | Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Overground |
Before you choose an area: what to check
An area is only the first filter. The rules that affect an owner change from borough to borough and sometimes from street to street.
- Council tax: does the borough charge the second-homes premium? Camden and Tower Hamlets both add 100%, but each borough decides for itself.
- Licensing: does the street fall inside a selective or additional licensing scheme? Wandsworth, Lambeth, Hackney and Barking and Dagenham all made new schemes in 2025. Our guide to renting out a London flat explains what that means.
- The building: towers in these areas are usually higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act, which affects completion timing and service charges. See our off-plan checklist.
- Build-to-rent nearby: at Wood Wharf and Kidbrooke, for example, there are homes built to be let by their owner, which adds rental supply next to your flat.
- The service charge budget for the specific block, which depends far more on the building than on the area.
- The journey you will actually make, timed at the hour you would make it, rather than a brochure figure.
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