Welcome to St. Mary’s Wharf, a new sustainable and vibrant town centre development by Native Land for Guildford.

Key Update — August 2022

Native Land has submitted further revisions to its planning application for St. Mary’s Wharf, Guildford, removing one storey from the Town Centre Building. This reduces the height to seven storeys from the ten originally proposed when the plans were first consulted on. St Mary’s Wharf will continue to deliver the significant public benefits contained in Native Land’s original proposal, including:

• Opening up the River Wey by creating wide, open and biodiverse, publicly accessible spaces, with more than 50 new trees, together with landing points for the future provision of a pedestrian footbridge to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.
• Creating a new civic square at the end of the High Street, as a gateway to the town and riverside.
• Developing two new sustainable housing buildings, with retail and restaurants at ground floor, providing 185 new private and affordable homes, shops, cafés, and bars, thereby alleviating pressure on the surrounding Green Belt.
• Improving access and permeability with a new residential street linking Millbrook to the river, the creation of a new vista to St Mary’s Church from Millmead, and active frontages along Millbrook.
• Creating more than 415 construction jobs and up to 83 jobs in retail on site, which will contribute an estimated £1.7 million a year to the local economy.

Video Presentation Update:

Please find below a video, presented by our lead architect – Henry Squire of Squire and Partners – which outlines in further detail on the ways in which the plans have evolved.

Key Update — Summer 2022

Following the submission of its planning application (21/P/02232) to Guildford Borough Council in November 2021, Native Land has submitted a series of design amendments to ensure that the redevelopment of St Mary’s Wharf responds to the feedback from the community, creates an important town centre hub and promotes a thriving High Street for Guildford.

Since submission, the team has continued to engage extensively with Guildford Borough Council and local stakeholders.

The revised proposals will help to rejuvenate the town centre, creating a new destination which connects the High Street to the River Wey via publicly accessible landscaped green space. In addition, St Mary’s Wharf will deliver new shops, bars, and cafes, and high-quality town centre homes on brownfield land, protecting Guildford’s surrounding green belt.

The proposed amendments to the submitted application are as follows:

• To sit more naturally within the local context, and to provide greater difference between the two buildings, the height and massing of the Town Centre Building has been significantly reduced and the materials have been amended.
• This latest reduction in height represents an overall reduction in the Town Centre Building of two storeys, from 10 to 8 storeys, since the first public consultation.
• St Mary’s Wharf will now deliver 8 new high-quality affordable homes on-site which will be of the same architectural quality as the rest of the scheme.
• The new public square, next to the High Street and the Town Bridge, has been redesigned and the Pavilion removed, to maximise open space.
• The Riverside Promenade has been widened and a colonnade introduced to provide shelter to pedestrian users during inclement weather.
• Native Land has also submitted plans for a new footbridge, connecting the site to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. The bridge is subject to a separate planning application but would be delivered in parallel with St Mary’s Wharf.
• The revised application will deliver in excess of 50 new trees on site, as well as a riverside pocket park and expansive greening on t­he roofs.

Key design changes:

The before image shows the proposals we submitted to Guildford Borough Council in November 2021. Since submission, the following key design amendments have been made to the application:

1. An entire floor has been removed from the Town Centre Building facing the High Street, reducing the overall height to eight storeys.
2. The colour of brickwork of the Town Centre Building has been changed to complement notable civic buildings nearby, including Guildford Castle and St Nicolas’ Church.
3. The roof detailing on the Town Centre Building has been removed and the green tiling has been changed to a lighter oxidised copper to complement surrounding roofscapes including the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and St Nicolas’ Church.
4. Enlivenment of the Millbrook facade through the introduction of greening and planters.
5. Setbacks have been introduced to floors six and seven to the southern facade of the Riverside Building to reduce massing and height.
6. The profiled parapets to the Riverside Building have been removed to reflect feedback
7. The proposed Pavilion has been removed to reflect feedback

Local benefits

In addition to the latest improvements to the proposals, the scheme continues to provide the following key benefits:

• Developing two new, sustainable, residential buildings with retail and restaurants at ground floor, which will provide 185 new homes, shops, cafes and bars.
• The provision of a mix of new homes, in a sustainable, town centre location, helping Guildford meet its need for housing while protecting the local greenbelt.
• The buildings, designed to respect the surrounding local heritage, will be all-electric and net zero carbon in operation.
• Opening up the River Wey by creating publicly accessible spaces including a new landscaped Riverside Promenade and pocket park, with access from the High Street to the river for the first time in 50 years.
• The proposals for St Mary’s Wharf work with the ambitions of Guildford Borough Council and local communities, to invest in the town centre, delivering new homes on brownfield land as well as job opportunities in construction and then retail.

How can I support the planning application?

To show your support for our plans for the site, simply click the following link which will create an email to the Council’s planning department – with the application reference, ‘21/P/02232’ in the subject of the email.

– Support our application here –

Please do read this email, adding any further comments and inserting your name, address and postcode before sending.

Comments can also be submitted via the ‘Make a Comment’ section on Guildford Borough Councils Planning Register. It is worth noting that you will need to have registered an account with the Council to make a comment through the portal. The planning application reference number is: 21/P/02232.