Hidden structural defects push Lewisham Library's reopening to autumn 2027 and the town centre programme to £30.5m. Cabinet decides on Wednesday 7 October.
Lewisham Library on the High Street is now not expected to reopen until autumn 2027. When builders stripped the building back to its frame, they found defects that will keep them on site for almost another year.
The delay is set out in a council report to Mayor and Cabinet, which meets at 6pm on Wednesday 7 October (Lewisham Council, meeting papers). The same report raises the budget for the whole Lewisham town centre programme, covering the High Street, the market and the library, to £30,488,326. The council is asked to find another £4.5 million from its own reserves to finish it.
Last November, a council report said the £24 million programme was making “progress towards completion in Autumn 2026” (committee report, 13 November 2025).
What the builders found inside the library
Rooff Construction started on site in September 2025. The report says that once the building was stripped back to its “shell and core”, “significant building fabric and structural defects became apparent” (report to Mayor and Cabinet, 7 October 2026). They include:
- loose, untied brick and blockwork around the whole perimeter, which has to be demolished and replaced with a lightweight steel structure on two sides, and drilled and tied back to the concrete frame on the other two
- damage to the concrete structure throughout, including exposed and corroded reinforcing bars, holes in beams and slabs, and cracks
- a defective floor screed and plaster, both to be stripped out and relaid
- a lift enclosure to be removed and replaced, and new sections of floor slab
- an unsafe plant room on the roof, to be demolished and replaced
- new foundations for the ground-floor glass walls, because the existing floor slab was poor
- extra fire safety work to meet new regulations after the structural changes
Most of the opening-up is now done, the report says, which reduces “but [does] not remove” the risk of finding more. Construction is forecast to finish in August 2027. Fit-out and the operator’s move-in follow, with the official reopening in autumn 2027.
The library is closed in the meantime. The council points readers to its other council-run and community-run libraries.
Where the extra money goes
The programme began in 2023 with about £19 million from the government’s Levelling Up Fund and £5 million from the council. The report says the overspend is not only the library. The market and its new canopy ran into trouble first:
- The canopy. A 2024 design put the canopy’s budget at about £1.6 million. All three tenders in 2025 failed the council’s quality threshold. The work went instead to the council’s highways contractor, FM Conway, on a £2.9 million contract variation agreed in February 2026.
- The ground under the market. Builders hit exceptionally deep concrete, uncharted utilities and water pipes, and an uncharted underground structure from the site’s wartime use.
- The library contract. The 2022 bid assumed about £5.4 million to build the library. Rooff’s contract was awarded at £6,532,085 before any of the defects were found.
The council will not say yet how much more Rooff and the architects, Architecture 00, will be paid. Both contract increases are capped at figures in a confidential Part 2 report. Architecture 00’s original contract was £570,375.
The new money is £4,403,053.70 from a £10 million capital contingency the council set aside in July 2026 for its whole capital programme, including council housing. Together with September’s Catford town centre plan, which took £1.4 million of revenue and £1 million of capital, that leaves £3.2 million in the pot for everything else. The report says the funding relies on borrowing, so it will add borrowing costs.
The rest of the £30.5 million, as the report lists it:
| Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Levelling Up Fund grant | £19,061,605.29 |
| Capital contingency (new) | £4,403,053.70 |
| Community Infrastructure Levy | £4,000,000.00 |
| Sale of the Library Resource Centre, 315 Hither Green Lane | £1,300,000.00 |
| Council capital reserves (existing allocation) | £750,000.00 |
| Council capital reserves (old library budget) | £495,477.66 |
| Section 106 contributions | £454,189.35 |
| Sale of material | £24,000.00 |
The government money has to be spent by the end of March 2028, and the council carries any overrun. The report says the current timetable fits inside that deadline.
Why not stop now?
The report considers halting the library works at “shell and core”: a building that is weathertight but not fitted out. It rejects that. The library could not reopen, more design and building work would be needed later, and stopping “would therefore be more likely to defer capital costs than remove them”. Changing contractor halfway through would also leave the empty building open to squatting, it adds.
Who will run the new library building
The same report asks the Mayor to award a contract to Blue Garage Ltd to run the refurbished building. Blue Garage would manage the building, the new workspace and the ground-floor café, and run a cultural programme. The library service and the borough archive stay with the council.
The contract terms, from the report:
- five years, with the option of five more, and a break clause for either side at year two
- the council pays Blue Garage an estimated £350,400 a year including VAT, £1,752,000 over five years, from the library revenue budget
- Blue Garage is expected to earn about £3.6 million from the building over five years
- total value £10,704,000 over the full ten years
Only two companies bid, and one failed the quality threshold. The contract is back in front of the Mayor because, the report says, “an administrative oversight” meant the original approval in September 2025 left out the concession income and VAT.
The market and the High Street
- Market canopy: construction began in August 2026 and is due to finish in March 2027. The market keeps trading six days a week, with stalls moving between finished and temporary sections.
- High Street: the main paving, lighting, CCTV and tree planting are largely complete. Plough Bridge pocket park opened in September 2025.
- Still to be confirmed: the active travel hubs at Clarendon Rise and near Lewisham station, and the restoration of the clocktower. Both depend on the final scope, what the council can afford and approvals from others.
What it means for you
- If you used Lewisham Library, plan on it staying shut for another year. Its reopening is forecast for autumn 2027, not this autumn.
- Market shoppers: expect canopy works around the stalls until March 2027.
- Council taxpayers: another £4.4 million of council reserves goes into the town centre, leaving £3.2 million of this year’s £10 million contingency for every other project.
- Want to watch it? Mayor and Cabinet meets at 6pm on Wednesday 7 October at the Civic Suite in Catford. The papers are on the council’s meetings site.
For live closures around the town centre, see our Lewisham roadworks and travel page. For the borough’s other big regeneration plan, read our report on the Catford town centre business plan.
Sources
- Lewisham Council, Lewisham Town Centre Improvement Programme: Programme and Budget Update, Part 1 report to Mayor and Cabinet, 7 October 2026 (defects, budget, funding sources, operator contract, milestones)
- Lewisham Council, Mayor and Cabinet, 7 October 2026: agenda and papers
- Lewisham Council, Town Centre Regeneration Programme Update, committee report, 13 November 2025 (earlier autumn 2026 completion forecast)
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