The artist Damien Hirst and the chef Mark Hix’s newly launched restaurant, Pharmacy 2, is bound to appeal to a celebrity clientele — after all, the original Pharmacy restaurant was frequented by David Bowie, Kate Moss, Tom Cruise and Madonna. The question of its success may not rest, though, on the quality of the menu but on how many diners will be willing to head south of the river.
Hirst and Hix have chosen to set up not in hipster Shoreditch or buzzing Soho but Vauxhall. Located in Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, near Vauxhall Tube station, the restaurant’s decor is as colourful and pharmaceutically themed as his Notting Hill restaurant — although hopefully it will have greater staying power (the original Pharmacy closed in 2003 after six years).
Its arrival is certainly a fillip for Vauxhall, a supremely accessible part of the South Bank that has been dominated by its railway station, a notoriously dangerous five-lane gyratory system, and postwar council estates. It probably wouldn’t have happened five years ago, but Hirst’s art gallery and restaurant is part of the increasingly fashionable “VoHo” gallery district that includes the Gasworks and the Amstel Art Gallery. Coming soon is Cabinet Gallery, a five-storey purpose-built building backed by the arts patron Charles Asprey, and built on the former Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, a highly fashionable spot in the 1800s.
This once-salubrious area — equidistant between Tate Modern on the South Bank and Tate Britain in Pimlico — is ripe for an artist-led renaissance, says Emma Fletcher-Brewer, a partner at Knight Frank, the estate agency. “Although it is benefiting from the regeneration of the Nine Elms area next door, Vauxhall has a very different feel and I see it as evolving in a quirky, arty direction, in the same way that Shoreditch and Peckham have,” she says. “Trendy bars and restaurants have opened under the railway arches, Vauxhall Cross [around the old MI6 building] is going to be developed, the road system redesigned, the Tube station revamped. In the way that place-making has provided Victoria with a distinct identity [as a foodie destination], I can see the same happening with the arts scene in Vauxhall.”
Fletcher-Brewer suggests that the design-led style of some of the area’s new schemes has helped attract creative types to the area who might not have considered buying a house in Vauxhall a few years ago. Keybridge, a development only five minutes from the station, occupies the site of a telephone exchange and one of its four buildings will be the tallest brick residential tower in the UK. Apart from the attractive 37-storey brick façade, the project offers urban loft-style apartments and Manhattan-style design.
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In the stylish lobby, exposed brick and raw materials are a nod to Vauxhall’s industrial past — there are end-grain timber parquet floors throughout — and at the foot of a metal statement staircase is a field of allium heads given to the residents to match their chosen (metallic) colour scheme. Their designer, the award-winning Tom Price, is also behind the public square, central garden with art installation, children’s playground and water features. Inside there will be a spa, gym, pool, club lounge, concierge service and underground parking.
Prices for the 252 private residential apartments start at £675,000 for a one-bedroom flat, hit £880,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment and go up to £2.4 million for the best three-bedroom properties. “The design-led spec is rare at this price point [£1,200 per square foot] so we have fewer than 100 units left to sell,” says Jon Hall, the sales and marketing director of Mount Anvil, the developer, which has partnered with FABRICA. “The high owner-occupier element of the buyers includes empty-nesters, singles, couples and families.”
One of the families is the Wilsons from the Lake District, who have bought a three-bedroom apartment on the 28th floor for £1.8 million as a second home. “I looked at every part of the South Bank, and while I loved the timeless nature of the brick of Keybridge, Vauxhall Tube offers great access — 15 minutes to the City or Euston,” says Jeremy Wilson, a former banker who has five children. “The area is evolving in a good way and as a keen climber I love the new climbing wall under the arches [Vauxwall Climbing Centre], as well as the new restaurant, Counter, a New York-style brasserie.” The arches also offer a branch of CrossFit and Dirty Burger, while near by are the family attractions of Vauxhall City Farm and Vauxhall Park.
The growing sense of community has also been key in attracting buyers to two nearby schemes — Embassy Works (a warehouse conversion, prices from £495,000) and Falkes House (nine apartments within a Victorian building, from £1.285 million).
“Londoners have been buying because they want to live there,” says Ben Babington, the head of Jackson-Stops & Staff’s new homes division. “Vauxhall has become a vibrant, cosmopolitan area that is more affordable than Pimlico and Battersea but is as central. The design-led detailing and character of both these schemes is a real antidote to the big glass towers of the wider VNEB [Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea] regeneration area that have attracted buy-to-let investors.”
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So what else is there for owner-occupiers to buy? A one-bedroom ex-local authority apartment sells for £375,000 to £400,000, according to Nick Webb, the senior sales manager at local estate agency Field & Sons, who says the three key roads for Victorian/late-Georgian townhouses are Fentiman Road, Bonnington Square and Vauxhall Grove. A four-bedroom home on Fentiman Road is on offer for £1.9 million. Flats in these townhouses go for about £400,000 for a one-bedroom property, £650,000 for two bedrooms. “Bonnington Square is a one-time hippy commune that has now gentrified, with a café, deli and an annual street party that is very popular: expect to pay £800,000 for a two-bedroom flat with a roof terrace or £600,000-plus for one without,” he says. “Demand is keeping prices up in this area, which has always attracted arty and media types.”
On the Albert Embankment — the stretch between Vauxhall and Lambeth bridges — there are 433 new homes in development, including three iconic mixed-use projects, Foster + Parters’ Corniche, The Dumont and Merano Residences. Prices at the former start from £3.35 million (berkeleygroup.co.uk).
According to Knight Frank, Vauxhall house prices have outperformed prime central London by 24 per cent since the beginning to 2010, and as the area continues to transform — and benefits from the extension of the Northern Line (to Nine Elms) — this trend is set to continue.