Under the Viaduct, Beneath Development
A building analysis of Elephant and Castle’s railway arches as infrastructure for informal tenure, migrant commerce and community formation.
Produced as part of Community Defence, a portfolio of three pieces on persistence under capital.
Nestled among the monolithic high-rises that now define Elephant and Castle, the railway viaduct that spans the length of Elephant Road houses eight arches that flank the Elephant and Castle Thameslink station on either end. To the west, the new Elephant and Castle Town Centre is currently under construction on the site that once housed the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre; to the east, the recently-completed Elephant Park encompasses the site of the former Heygate Estate. The arches sit on the seam between two frontiers of the redevelopment, both of which have drawn controversy.
This building analysis examines how a remainder of Victorian infrastructure has been appropriated by the Latin American community in Elephant and Castle. The arches, made accessible through inexpensive informal leasing and subletting, were transformed into commercial and social infrastructure. The piece examines the position of the arches amid the ongoing Elephant and Castle redevelopment, which has fundamentally reshaped the area.
“In their place, students have increasingly comprised the population of Elephant and Castle. In Elephant One - the site of the Get Living redevelopment’s first phase - sits Portchester House: this high-rise, high‑end student accommodation overlooks the arches, exemplifying the infusion of global capital and speculative housing models amplified by London’s global higher education market. Blockading the viaduct on its western face, the colossal London College of Communication building is under construction. As more high-rises spring up, they begin to dwarf the informal economy of the arches below.”“
The arches are the sole remaining sinew of the network of Latin American traders yet to be displaced by the redevelopment; the railway viaduct is the final remnant of the former urban fabric between two massive development zones. The arch has been a focal point through which community instantiated itself in Elephant and Castle. Change is imminent: the final phase of Elephant and Castle plan intends to connect the two major zones of redevelopment, carving the proposed Park Route through the arches.