Bromley has picked Bond Bryan Architects to design 123 affordable homes and a new gymnastics centre in St Paul's Cray, six months later than its own timetable.
Bromley Council has chosen the architects who will design 123 affordable homes and a new home for Bromley Valley Gymnastics Club on Chipperfield Road, St Paul’s Cray. Bond Bryan Architects, a Sheffield practice, won the contract on 21 October. It is worth £2,218,545 before VAT (Find a Tender award notice, 22 October 2026).
The appointment comes about six months later than the council planned. Its own timetable had the design team in place by April, with a planning application going in last month.
What the contract covers
The notice describes an architect-led team providing design and technical services for the council’s housing delivery. Its title says it runs from RIBA stage 2 to 7, which in practice means from early concept design through planning, construction and handover.
- Value: £2,218,545 excluding VAT, £2,662,254 including VAT
- Bids: nine tenders received, seven assessed in the final stage, all from small and medium-sized firms
- Earliest signing: 3 November 2026, after an eight-working-day standstill ending 2 November
- Contract dates: 3 November 2026 to 30 September 2030 (estimated)
When the council put the work out to tender in July, it estimated the value at £2.75 million and asked for bids by 19 August, with an award expected around 28 September (Find a Tender tender notice, 27 July 2026). The winning price came in about £530,000 under that estimate.
The scheme
The site is the former Walsingham School, a 2.8 hectare plot that now houses the gymnastics club. The council’s report describes the building as “in a poor state of repair” (Local Authority Housing Fund report, Executive and Full Council, February 2026).
The Local Plan allocates it for around 200 homes alongside a gymnastics centre and the library. The report says the council now considers 123 homes plus a new gym “likely to be considered favourably” because the gym has to be kept on site. The club supports around 600 young people, according to the same report.
Full Council approved a budget of £71.417 million on 26 February 2026 and added the scheme to the capital programme. A Labour amendment to the wider capital programme was lost (Council minutes, 26 February 2026).
The money comes from two places:
- £27.633 million from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund, round four, a grant meant to cut councils’ spending on temporary accommodation
- £43.784 million of council borrowing, which the report expects rent and temporary accommodation savings to pay back
The portfolio holder, Councillor Yvonne Bear, told the housing scrutiny committee in March that the grant had been secured (minutes, 24 March 2026).
How the timetable has moved
The February report set out an indicative programme. Set against it, this month’s award is late:
| Stage | Council’s plan (Feb 2026) | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Design team tender | March to April 2026 | Tender published July, awarded 21 October |
| Design work | April to August 2026 | Contract starts 3 November at the earliest |
| Public engagement | May to June 2026 | No consultation found on the council’s site |
| Planning application | September 2026 | None on the register by 26 October |
| Planning decision | January 2027 | Not yet possible |
| Start on site | March or April 2027 | Not yet confirmed |
| Completion | August 2030 | Design contract runs to 30 September 2030 |
We checked the planning register through PlanIt for applications on Chipperfield Road received since mid-July. The only one is for a phone mast on a grass verge. The council has not published a revised timetable that we could find.
The gym and its rent
The club has occupied the building since its lease expired in November 2019, “holding over” on the old terms. It pays the council £20,400 a year. The report says rent on a new building is expected to be in the region of £40,000 to £60,000 a year, on a full repairing and insuring lease, subject to valuation.
The club has said it will take that lease if the centre is designed with it. The report notes it may not be possible to keep the club running in the old building throughout the works. The council would have to serve notice on grounds of redevelopment, then move the club into the new building once it is finished.
The council is also giving up a sale. It had expected around £5 million from selling the site, a receipt the Executive had agreed in 2022.
What it means for you
- No plans to comment on yet. Once Bond Bryan starts, the next public step should be engagement on the design and then a planning application. Both will be posted here when they appear.
- For families at the gym: the council expects to agree lease terms with the club once there is a design. Questions about sessions during the building work are best put to the club.
- For anyone on the housing register: the grant conditions ask for 105 homes for permanent or temporary accommodation and 18 for “the resettlement programme”, in the report’s words. The scheme sits in the council’s Bromley Homes for Bromley People programme, which houses residents from the borough’s register.
The scheme is the council’s largest in the programme so far, by its own description when it was announced in December 2025 (London Borough of Bromley, 12 December 2025). Also in St Paul’s Cray, 68 council homes are already being built at Bellegrove; our report on that scheme sets out the size of the housing register they are meant to serve. For other applications across the borough, see our Bromley planning applications page.
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