Greenland’s Ram Quarter has made a successful return appearance at London's prestigious Open House festival, an annual event which took place over the first two weeks of September celebrating the capital’s architecture and urban landscape.
Greenland worked with EPR Architects (which developed the design and vision for Ram Quarter) and Sambrook's (Ram Quarter's new on-site brewery) to run guided tours of the development. The tours covered the history of the site, from its two centuries as the former home of Young’s brewery to its more recent redevelopment creating hundreds of new homes and a vibrant heart for Wandsworth Town centre.
The walk began in the historic square, where EPR design director Pascal Wensink explained how a residential-led, mixed-use masterplan has transformed the brewery complex into a new urban quarter, creating a contemporary design which reflects Ram Quarter’s industrial past. The tour took visitors up the main boulevard and back along the riverside terrace, ending at the historic listed buildings which now house the new onsite Heritage Centre and brewery run by Sambrook's.
John Hatch, brewer with Sambrook's and manager of the Heritage Centre, then explored Ram Quarter’s fascinating past as the site of Britain’s longest continuously-operating brewery, as well as how this beermaking tradition has been maintained throughout the site’s centuries of history to the present day. Visitors had the opportunity to see inside the historic brewery buildings, and a sneak preview of the newly completed Heritage Centre which will soon open to the general public. The tours ended with a taste of beer brewed on site.
Demand for tickets was high, with the Ram Quarter tours being fully booked the day after tickets were released weeks earlier in the summer. When new spaces became available these were again booked very quickly. Visitors were very enthusiastic about how interesting the site is, and what they had learned on the tours.
Alongside Ram Quarter, this year’s Open House programme featured iconic London landmarks such as the Prime Minister's residence at No. 10 Downing Street, and St Bartholomew’s, the oldest hospital in London – founded almost a thousand years ago.