In July, double Stirling Prize winner Witherford Watson Mann was picked to revamp the arts centre, originally designed by Howell Killick Partridge & Amis. The project is due to be part-funded by up to 300 student homes on the wider site.
Now developer Stories and funder Aviva Capital Partners have unveiled Maccreanor Lavington as the architect to lead on the residential element.
The Albany was rebuilt after a fire in the late 1970s and reopened by Princess Diana in 1982. It has hosted performers such as Lenny Henry, Whoopi Goldberg and Jessie Ware over the past four and a half decades.
But it now needs ‘significant investment’ to keep it affordable, accessible and fit for future generations. According to the team, the ‘ageing infrastructure, rising maintenance costs and outdated systems are making it increasingly difficult and expensive to run’.
Maccreanor Lavington’s housing, for local arts students, is being built in partnership with education provider Trinity Laban. It is understood this will generate around half of the funding needed for the overhaul.
Albany chief executive Mimi Findlay said: ‘This project has always been about safeguarding the Albany’s future. By bringing together Witherford Watson Mann and Maccreanor Lavington, we’re assembling a design team that reflects the different elements of the vision while keeping our focus firmly on protecting what makes the Albany so special.
‘The student homes are being explored as a way of helping unlock the investment needed to secure the future of this remarkable community asset.’
Maccreanor Lavington project architect Eva Barnett added: ‘The opportunity to help deliver affordable homes for Trinity Laban students reinforces Deptford’s strong community identity, supports the long-term future of one of London’s most important cultural institutions, and is exactly the kind of brief we relish.’
The proposals remain at an early stage, although public consultation has taken place throughout the summer, with five community workshops helping to co-produce a design brief. More detail on the emerging designs for the student homes is expected to be revealed before the end of the year as part of a second phase of engagement.
Witherford Watson Mann won the 2025 Stirling Prize with Appleby Blue Almshouse, a residential complex for the over-65s in south London, which the judges described as ‘a clarion call for a new form of housing at a pivotal moment’. It had previously won the prize 12 years earlier for its revamp of 12th-century Astley Castle in Warwickshire.
Maccreanor Lavington itself won the Stirling in 2008 as part of the team behind the Accordia housing development in Cambridge alongside Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Alison Brooks Architects.
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