Elephant Stores, Southwark, London – Lendlease with MARK London

Elephant Stores is a home grown, two-year, multi-use meanwhile space at Elephant Park – a place to eat, drink, socialise, work, shop – situated at the heart of Lendlease’s 3000-home regeneration scheme in London’s Elephant & Castle. The place is brought to life by three hyperlocal entrepreneurs: Café/bar Little Louie, SoLo Craft Fair and Fix Your Cycle."

Where is the project located?
14 Ash Avenue, London SE17 1GQ
 
Who is the developer/client of the project?
Lendlease

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

Elephant Stores is a home grown, two-year, multi-use meanwhile space at Elephant Park – a place to eat, drink, socialise, work, shop - situated at the heart of Lendlease’s 3000-home regeneration scheme in London’s Elephant & Castle. 

Open seven days a week, the 3000 sq ft space is a big and smart commitment by the landlord, with a mission to provide necessary community amenities while at the same time giving smaller entrepreneurs the opportunity to establish and grow their businesses.

The Elephant Park community is typical of regeneration areas – existing local residents, often families and older people, side by side with buying and newcomers, largely younger professionals. Elephant Stores curated, lived-in atmosphere ensures the place is very much locally loved.

It’s brought to life by three hyperlocal entrepreneurs:

Café/bar Little Louie - with a laid-back low-fi music ambience, excellent coffee, food and natural wines. Operated by an experienced music producer with a small local restaurant nearby. Furniture, lighting and furnishings curated by Vintage Matters and are for sale, providing a continually refreshed environment.

SoLo Craft Fair - wide range of craft, gifts, homeware, clothing, cards etc. Representing more than 60 South London makers at any time, with over 200 designers showcased since opening. Previously only having operated markets and month-long pop-ups, this is SoLo’s first ‘permanent’ space.

Fix Your Cycle - bike repair store, refurbished bike sales and e-bike hire. Expanding beyond their social enterprise work in prisons, FYC is committed to employing ex-offenders.
 
Tell us what you did and how the project, event or installation enlivened the place in a creative way?

MARK conceived, curated and delivered the project, developing a win-win-win model for the landlord, operators and community. 

MARK worked with Lendlease to strategically hold back the best unit on the site, (prime positioning opposite award-winning parkland), for two years to initially provide residents with much-needed amenities, and maximise long term rental returns as the place matures.

The ambition is for Elephant Stores to continue in the location at the end of the meanwhile project, with a new longer lease at market rent.

The approach to the project:

Utilising MARK’s two guiding principles:

‘Locally loved, globally admired’ – for a place to be successful, it must be embraced by those who already live, work and visit

‘Bringing the inside out’ – creating a ‘locally loved’ place relies on seeking out talent that already exists within a place; we find the hidden gems

Create something specific to the place, while providing necessary amenities

Use a local-first supply chain – the key fittings were designed and built by a small South London supplier

To ensure communities connect with both the retailers and each other, the space must look and feel accessible with a range of offers and reasons for people to dwell and return

The offer available at Elephant Stores is unique, with people browsing in SoLo while waiting for their drinks and those getting their bike fixed will stay for coffee. And the ever-changing Vintage Matters furniture and SCF stock keeps the store seeming fresh and new.
 
Please share any data or figures that support your entry, for example increased footfall, happiness surveys, event attendance and/or observed changes in behaviour. 

Elephant Stores is a commercially viable, community activation space; striking a balance between community, social and commercial interests and outcomes. 

Footfall – more than 10,000 visits/month (includes repeats)

Little Louie – 250/day

SoLo – 100/day Friday-Sunday, 50/day weekdays

FYC – 80 bookings/week; rising

Employment & training

Employing 33 locals

Little Louie x20

SoLo x8, many are creatives, others being trained in craft curation and event coordination

FYC x3, plus 2 local university students, 7 apprentices working across the business

Events & Promotions

Currently up to 20 events/month (increasing), attracting 350 people

SoLo - monthly coffee mornings for makers and small businesses to meet and network (x25 people), embroidery and t-shirt making workshops (capacity 6 people/week), monthly drop-in tarot readings (x40)

Little Louie - weekly DJ nights (x50), irregular radio broadcasts (broadening the reach), monthly wine tastings (x24). Widening the demographic from further afield with a £4.50 tea and cake offer for over-60s

Vintage Matters - quarterly fair days bringing in a range of smaller items for apartment living (x100)

FYC - launching weekly Sunday Cycle Club for all levels; a morning ride before breakfast

Feedback - residents, neighbours, visitors report:

Liking the welcoming and authentic, non-cookie-cutter feel of the space

The mix on offer; always something new

SoLo supporting so many local makers
 
Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution? Please provide any evidence or data to support this. 

Elephant Stores is a launch platform for small, local entrepreneurs, giving them the best possible chance of success by providing them opportunity to be in a location, environment and support structure that they generally never could have accessed or afforded, also with highly favourable turnover rental terms. 

Launched in November 2021 weeks before a tight covid Christmas season for hospitality and retail, Elephant Stores is fast becoming a buzzing meeting point for the locals with a total 300 people at day utilising the space in some way, with an additional 4000 people a year attending events.

With warmer weather approaching Elephant Stores will be able to realise its social potential, with full frontage bi-fold doors opening onto the park.

Lendlease white boxed the unit, MARK managed the design and fit out process to Lendlease and Southwark Council’s high standards. The design is sustainably focused:

The main, central café structure is modular and can be removed and taken to any other site, as can all other fittings

Furniture and furnishings are all vintage and will continue their life in people’s homes after being sold

All works to the unit were considered so they can be utilised by any future operator