Good news from Rye Lane: Southwark Council has granted planning permission for the Peckham Watch Factory, clearing the way for an independent London watchmaker to bring its whole operation under one roof.

For a business currently scattered across two sites in Forest Hill and Camberwell, this is the building it has been waiting for. Watchmaking needs even north light and dust-free conditions, so those two conditions shaped much of the design. A new saw-tooth roof of north-facing rooflights floods the assembly studios with the steady, glare-free daylight the craft depends on, and a planted lightwell pulls that same light into the print studios below, while giving staff an outdoor space adjacent to the kitchen and staff room.

By keeping the sound structure and its brick gables, we hold on to the building's embodied carbon and its industrial character. We can't wait to see it built.