Pullens Yards
- B1 - Business
- Food / Beverage
- Outdoor amenity
- Courtyard
- Secondary street
- Public
Key dates
1886
The Pullens Estate was built by James Pullen who acquired the land and developed it over a 15-year period from 1886.
1944
Some of the buildings were damaged during German bombing in World War II. The V1 fighter pilot demolished six houses in Crampton Street and four in Manor Place.
1970
In the 1970s, the council planned to demolish the buildings but were stopped in the 1980s by an alliance of tenants and squatters who campaigned and fought successfully to save them with a campaign of direct action and solidarity. Artists were encouraged to rent the workshops at a subsidised rent.
2005
The Pullens Estate was designated a conservation area by Southwark council an indication of the Borough’s revised approach to its preservation and enhancement.
Axonometric Drawing
- Minor interior changes
- Individual access
Operational Diagram
- Ownership
- Management
- Occupation
Architectural Plans
Pullens Yard is located further down from the buzz of Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, one block behind the railway arches, surrounded by the newly residential/office building. They include three individual yards with 2-storey workspaces opening onto the yards, located behind the 4-storey housing whose entrances face the street. The tenement buildings are Victorian style, three bays wide, and flat roofs used as roof terraces. These buildings have a central entrance to a common stairwell. The tenement buildings define the urban edge of the site.
The yards are publicly accessible when the gates are open, otherwise, these workspaces have low visibility and therefore most of the people in the neighbourhood are not aware of the activities in these workspaces.
The initial idea of integrated live/work spaces in Pullens Yards was that the users of workspaces – intended for industrial, craft and making, would live in the connected flats, yet except for few cases, the live/work aspect of Pullens Yards has never aligned. The move away from craft and making based practices towards new forms of work, provides a way to squeeze greater value out of a small space, threatening more space-consuming activities.
The Pullens Yards Tenant’s Association manages the common spaces initiating and taking responsibility to maintain the space ranging from daily organisational activities to negotiations with the council. Self-management has always been at the core of the way the yards operate.