Announcement coincides with foundation’s rebranding

Prince Charles today shared his passion for the redevelopment of the area around Waterloo Station in London.

And during a visit to the area where the Prince’s Foundation has been working on community engagement, he also announced that the words “For the Built Environment” would be dropped from his charity’s name.

He visited Lower Marsh, the ancient market street behind the station, with Prince’s Foundation ambassador Kirstie Allsopp to see an example of projects undertaken by the charity.

The foundation has been working with the local community for more than a year, at the invitation of the Waterloo Business Improvement District (BID), to come up with ways to boost the area.

Waterloo Station is visited by 86 million passengers a year and is the only major station left in London without a comprehensive regeneration plan for the surrounding area.

Next week the Prince’s Foundation and Waterloo BID will publish a report detailing their recommendations, which will include strengthening the neighbourhood hub area at the junction of Waterloo Road and The Cut, with improved visual and physical links to the station, Lower Marsh and Millennium Green.

It will also suggest the redevelopment of a group of sites to the east of Waterloo Road, including Mercury House and the bus garage, to create a major new development fronting Waterloo Road.

The Prince of Wales said: “As I walked around Waterloo, it was rather extraordinary to think that it was over 25 years ago that I first started on what turned out to be an extremely lonely road towards establishing my foundation to tackle the lost art of community-building. I believed then, as I do now, that the nature of the built environment significantly determines our quality of life.”