Construction starts at £160m Dalston Junction project

Barratt has started work on the first major residential element of one of London's key strategic regeneration schemes, the £160m transformation of Dalston, Hackney.

The project will provide a total of over 550 new homes, shops, a library and archive, plus a brand new station for the East London line extension at Dalston Junction.

At the heart of the scheme will be Dalston Square, a major new town centre space around which the new homes, shops and restaurants will be built in a range of striking modern buildings.

Barratt East London's construction team is now excavating the basement and foundations of the first residential element in Dalston Lane South. This will provide around 250 homes in buildings rising to a maximum of 17 storeys, and will also include the library and the core of a communal heating unit based on an environmentally-efficient combined heat and power (CHP) system.

Barratt was selected for the project by Hackney Council, the Mayor of London's office, Transport for London (TfL) and the London Development Agency (LDA), and preliminary engineering and infrastructure work is already well under way.

Over 30 of the new homes were reserved ahead of the sales launch, and interest continues to be strong despite difficult market conditions.

Barratt East London managing director Alastair Baird said: "It's a tremendously exciting scheme that's great news for Hackney and inner-London as a whole, and we are delighted to be part of it. We expect the first homes to be ready around June 2009."

The project is going ahead in two phases - Dalston Lane South and Dalston Junction Interchange, with the new Dalston Square linking and integrating them. Transport for London is currently working on the station site, but will later hand over to Barratt for the building of a further 300 homes. The new station is due to open in 2010.

Designed by Arup Associates and McAslan & Partners, the entire project is committed to the use of environmentally-friendly measures such as green roofs and energy-saving combined heat and power (CHP) generation.

The majority of homes for sale in the first phase of Dalston Square will be one-bedroom apartments aimed at first-time buyers, at prices from £265,000, with two-bedroom apartments from £320,000. Three and four-bedroom apartments will also be available in due course.

For further information visit Barratthomes.co.uk.