Two Boxpark-style retail, leisure and office schemes could be built in Woolwich and Reading after planning applications were lodged.

Carl Turner Architects (CTA) has applied to transform a vacant car park, opposite Lidl on Creton Street in Woolwich, into a pop-up site using 32 recycled shipping containers.

Around 60% of the Wool Yard scheme would be dedicated to co-working space and studios targeted at local businesses and entrepreneurs, while the remainder would be filled by leisure and retail providers.

CTA previously developed a similar scheme, Pop Brixton, in partnership with Lambeth Council.

The site has created more than 200 new jobs and attracts around one million visitors every year.

CTA founder and director Carl Turner said: “It is our intention that Wool Yard will become an incubator where entrepreneurs and small local businesses can locate together and create powerful synergies.

“Addressing the lack of affordable and flexible business space in a creative and sustainable manner can act as a catalyst for positive change in a community, as we saw in Brixton.”

Separately, Inception Holdings aims to build a similar ‘urban market’ at its Broad Street Mall shopping centre in Reading.

Planning documents reveal the scheme would be made from 16 stacked shipping containers, offering room for retail, restaurants and bars.

It will also boast a rooftop stage for live music performance.

The temporary destination could remain in place for up to five years.

Inception Holdings said the market, which would be situated at an undeveloped area in South Court, would accommodate “a creative mix of tenants who might otherwise struggle to find appropriate space.

The company has already ploughed £5m into the centre since acquiring it in 2015 as bids to rejuvenate the scheme.

Inception Holdings’ Tim Vaughan said: “South Court Urban Market will create a mixed use hub of new concepts, allowing them to test the market and draw in visitors with a much broader choice of places to shop, eat and drink.

“The proposal will greatly enrich the local area and further boost Broad Street Mall’s credentials as a retail and leisure destination.”

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