A new town for Vauxhall?

From a November 2007 edition of Estates Gazette (EG):

Architect SOM has been enlisted by New Covent Garden Market’s wholesale traders to draw up an unsolicited masterplan for a new town in London’s Vauxhall, SW8.

EG, which revealed the market traders’ intentions in September has obtained a copy of SOM’s initial plans for the 56-acre site, home to the UK’s largest fresh produce market.

The London International Food Exchange scheme has been secretly formulated over the past year, following government approval in September 2006 for a redevelopment of the market.

The traders, who have the backing of a major international bank and development consortium, have drawn up the plans to counter government moves to sell the site.

The plans comprise a major office complex aimed at the media industry, as well as hotels, restaurants and cafés built around a civic square, hundreds of homes, a shopping centre, a farmer’s market, a food museum, accommodation for the fruit and flower

The New Covent Garden Market Authority, the quango that runs the site, is expected to oppose the plans as it has published its own vision for the market.

It will seek bids for a 625,000 sq ft market to be developed on the site, with surplus land sold off for high-rise housing.

Sounds pretty cool.

No real news on the proposed tower yet, but keep watching this post.