GCSE students cement their construction knowledge

Royal Arsenal - the Berkeley Homes (Urban Living) Ltd development in SE18, had some very special visitors on 4th July 2008. Twenty budding house builders from Blackheath Bluecoats secondary school descended on the flagship regeneration scheme in Woolwich as part of their GCSE in Construction and the Built Environment.

The visit was arranged by Mr Nicholas Watkins, who teaches Architecture and Construction at the Blackheath school. Mr Watkins commented on the visit: "It has been hugely beneficial for my students to see how the apartments at Royal Arsenal are constructed and observe site work, and health and safety, first hand."

The students arrived at Royal Arsenal at 10:00 and were greeted by Sales Manager Andrew Reynolds at the Sales and Marketing Suite. From there, the students were taken off for a 30-minute site induction, which included an overview of the development, detail on the construction and all aspects of health and safety. The induction finished with the students receiving full PPE equipment, including protective shoes, high visibility jackets and hard hats.

Senior Site Manager Karsan Wagjiani conducted the tour of Royal Arsenal, taking the students to see different stages of the build process as they were happening. First on the list was concreting, followed by tape and jointing, and finally brickwork. The tour was designed to give the GCSE students a broad understanding of the skill it takes to build apartments from scratch.

Royal Arsenal has some of the finest construction and architectural staff working on the development, and team members have won several National House-Building Council (NHBC) Pride In The Job and Seal of Excellence awards - accolades that recognise best practice in house building and excellent site management skills.

Paul Vallone, Managing Director of Berkeley Homes (Urban Living) Ltd, commented on the visit: "We are always pleased to welcome students who have a keen interest in construction. As an industry, we are under pressure to build thousands of new homes every year to meet demand but in order to do that we need a skilled workforce. We hope the students' visit to Royal Arsenal has inspired a future generation of construction workers."

Royal Arsenal is one of the biggest regeneration projects in London. The first phase of the scheme is complete, with residents now occupying a number of Grade II listed buildings that have been skilfully converted into apartments. The Armouries is the current phase of Royal Arsenal, with 436 one, two and three-bedroom apartments being built in an architecturally stunning building. The future of Royal Arsenal has been mapped out in a new Masterplan, with the intention to create a further 1,200 new homes, a new river-fronting public park, a new riverside piazza, and new retail and commercial space.

Royal Arsenal's thriving community of over 3,000 residents enjoys a residents' only gym, a Couture Food Hall, a Thames Clipper stop on site, a Streetcar-run car club, a 24-hour concierge facility, Wellington Park, and the prospect of a Young's pub opening in Spring 2009. Next year will also see the opening of Woolwich's DLR station, as well as Royal Assent for Crossrail in Summer 2009, with the new station to be located at Royal Arsenal.

Prices at The Armouries start from £250,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, from £300,000 for two-bedroom apartments and from £315,000 for three-bedroom apartments.

For further information about Royal Arsenal, visit Royal-arsenal.co.uk.