A major data center development has been proposed for East London, with plans filed for a project that could deliver up to 180MW of capacity on a former industrial site in Charlton. The application, submitted to the Royal Borough of Greenwich, targets land adjacent to and including the former Stone Foundries at 669A Woolwich Road and the VIP Industrial Estate, marking one of the larger speculative data center proposals in the UK capital in recent years.
The proposed development encompasses a 6.9-hectare site, with plans for a 100,000 sqm (1.07 million sq ft) data center, a substation, and up to 10,000 sqm (107,639 sq ft) of mixed-use space. The total investment is estimated at approximately $1.4 billion, with the data center component alone spanning 70,325 sqm (756,972 sq ft) and delivering up to 180MW of IT load. The current application seeks a scoping opinion from the council to determine whether a full Environmental Impact Assessment will be required, a standard procedural step for projects of this scale.
The project, branded as Charlton Gateway, is being driven by Greater London Industrial (GLi), a joint venture between real assets investment manager Patrizia and property developer Kingston Space Property (KSP). According to project documents, the site offers a rare combination of attributes necessary for data center development, including a confirmed power connection, high-speed fiber infrastructure, and close proximity to London's financial markets. "The site presents a rare opportunity in that it possesses all the attributes necessary to develop a data center within the next few years in terms of its scale, location, and availability," one document states.
Construction is anticipated to begin in 2027 or 2028, with completion targeted as early as 2028 or 2029. A public consultation on the development ran from November to December 2025, though it received little attention at the time. The site has a complex history: Stone Foundries, an industrial manufacturer that operated in the area for roughly 190 years, sold the land to developer Montreaux in 2019 and relocated. Three of Stone's buildings are listed on Greenwich's local heritage register, and two are slated for demolition as part of the redevelopment.
Earlier proposals for the site included more than 770 new homes, but those plans were rejected three times—by Greenwich councilors in 2018, by London Mayor Sadiq Khan in 2019, and again by the UK government's then-communities secretary Robert Jenrick in 2020 following an appeal. The land was subsequently sold by Rockwell and Zenprop to Falconbrook in 2022, before GLi acquired it. An application for an industrial warehouse on part of the site was approved last year, and GLi has owned the VIP Industrial Estate since 2022.
The development reflects the continued pressure for data center capacity in and around London, driven by cloud adoption and AI workloads. KSP is also involved in the 200MW Heathrow Gateway project in West London, while Patrizia has previously invested in Aligned, is developing a campus outside London in Iver alongside CorScale, and has acquired a data center in Berlin. The Charlton project, if approved, would add significant supply to a market where availability remains tight, though heritage considerations and local planning history could pose challenges to the timeline.