The West End Project is a radical overhaul of traffic and public realm in central London. It removes the one-way systems and general traffic on Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street, closes streets to create parks and new squares, widens pavements and improves road safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The aim is to shape the public realm to tackle air quality, loneliness and climate change.
Demolition work is underway on a £350m project adjacent to Leeds train station and the proposed HS2 route. A nine-acre brownfield site is being transformed into an office, retail and leisure space with 750 new homes. The scheme is seen as the gateway development for the regeneration of disadvantaged inner city district Holbeck, bringing new homes and jobs.
The Grade II-listed Lambeth Fire Station and former London Fire Brigade headquarters, which overlooks the Thames and the Houses of Parliament, is being converted into 400 homes, a new fire station and a Fire Brigade Museum. The £450m project also includes the creation of public space in front of the building, opening up the high street where a new hotel, offices and shops will be delivered.
Port Loop was a redundant urban island, strangled by canals, just outside Birmingham the city centre. It is one of the UK’s most significant brownfield regeneration schemes, and is being transformed into a new, family-focused waterside neighbourhood. The 43-acre site will bring 1,150 new homes to the city, along with workspaces, parks, community facilities, a swimming pool, cycleways, 1.5km of towpaths and a water bus stop.
The 57-acre Kirkstall Forge development is the oldest continually industrialised site in the UK. It cost £40m to clear and decontaminate the brownfield site, and build flood defences, a major river bridge and an on-site railway station. The new rural neighbourhood will be nestled in 150 acres of woodland valley, but is just a six-minute train journey into Leeds.
Wickside is a polluted, canal-side industrial no-man’s land in Hackney – a waste-transfer site with no homes and just 21 jobs. The masterplan received planning approval in May 2018 to turn the area into a thriving, buzzing district with 500 homes, a craft brewery, a casting foundry, studio space for creative businesses and local artists, and a food market.
The Chocolate Factory, once home of the Jelly Baby, closed down in 1975. The cluster of 19th and 20th century manufacturing buildings have steadily been claimed as studios for local artists, music makers, multimedia studios, photographic studios and performing arts organisations. The new masterplan has sought to maintain the individual nature of the different structures while creating cohesion.
The 239-home scheme Oakfield was built for people not cars. A redundant former university campus, the site lies at the intersection of three distinct neighbourhoods. Hoarded off, unused and unloved for years, it’s effectively a partition between communities.
London Wall Place is made up of two new corporate buildings with nine roof terraces. The buildings are located on an important historic site within the City of London, next to St Alphage Church’s medieval ruins and London Wall. The brief was to unlock these historic structures, replace those structures of no heritage value and create a commercial campus for 5,000 people.
The One Tower Bridge masterplan has linked the contemporary glass More London estate with the warehouse stock of Shad Thames. The new district opened in the autumn 2017, with The Ivy restaurant and the Bridge Theatre on a new pedestrianised thoroughfare, Duchess Walk. Views of Tower Bridge are maximised from the new boulevard lined with shops, cafes, a spa and bike parking.
The Italian Gardens sit to the north of the high street of Weston-super-Mare, previously divorced from its surroundings and run-down. Although well-used by the community, a £2.5m grant meant the space could be upgraded and routes opened to the town.
Balham has undergone much change as young professionals and families, priced out of Clapham, moved in to the area. But the town centre and streetscape was in need of improvement. The scheme to overhaul the public realm included transforming Hildreth Street into a vibrant market square with a cafe strip and finding a creative solution to the ‘ugly wall’, a flank wall that is now covered in mock-Victorian green faience tiling as a nod to the Northern Line.
The BBC Television Centre at White City is shape-shifting from a closed and inaccessible site to a fully inclusive new piece of city. Historic features, such as the original stage door, have been retained, but it has homes, offices, restaurants, a three-screen cinema and a club with a rooftop pool. The public realm is step-free and level with landscaping and plenty of places to sit. The site has been stitched back into the local area and led the regeneration of White City.
The dilapidated department store in the middle of Brixton, dating back to 1906, has been restored to house community events and services and workspace for creatives. It is home to the post office, local businesses, a coffee roastery, a record store, a deli and restaurants.
Waltham Forest is growing faster than any other London borough. To support this, £27m of ‘Mini-Holland’ funding and £800,000 (Borough Cycling Programme) from Transport for London is being invested to improve infrastructure and encourage walking and cycling.
This Grade I-listed complex of historic buildings and gardens was a 14th century monastery-turned-almshouse. In partnership with the Museum of London, Charterhouse Square has now been made open to the public for the first time, taking touring parties and running groups for older people, and providing education and learning.
Every Wednesday and Friday at 12pm and every Saturday at 2pm, the new Fan Bridge at Paddington Basin reminds residents, workers and visitors of its presence. The 20m bridge over the Grand Union Canal is made from five different metal strands that lift one by one like a Japanese hand fan. The 3m wide cantilevered bridge has a hidden underground machine room and was designed to have drama in its movement.
Broadgate in the City was seen as a corporate concrete fortress, but a new masterplan is turning it into central London’s largest pedestrianised area. It is designed to house the 30,000 workers based on the office campus and to pull in visitors and passers-by. With more than 32 acres and four open spaces, it is fast becoming a new civic hub that appeals during the day and after office hours with foodie pop-ups, restaurants, screenings and festivals such as Archikids.
The 67-acre King’s Cross regeneration site has been designed to bring together an existing local community and a new one. The new public realm at King’s Cross features parks, squares and gardens, dotted with fountains and long sharing benches. The space between the 1,900 new homes plays host to an events and enlivenment programme intended to prompt conversation and appeal to a diverse audience, from residents to visitors, and workers to academics.
The 30-acre former ship repair yard Smith’s Dock welcomed some of the world’s largest vessels between the 1850s and its closure in the 1980s. The 800-home development (including modular townhouses and apartments) will be built around the three original dock inlets and opens up the coast-to-coast cycle route. Working with the local fishing community, a memorial has been installed for lost men at sea.
Robin Hood Gardens has made way for the £500m residential scheme Blackwall Reach. A total of 1,500 new homes will be built, of which half will be classified as affordable. Local people have been prioritised in this development, with existing tenants rehoused in the first phase and a replacement mosque built. The existing school has been expanded and new landscaped gardens will have contemplation areas and public art.
After decades of dereliction, one of Europe’s largest brick buildings is being brought back to life. The crane-covered Battersea Power Station will house new offices (the Apple campus), 4,000 homes and a 2,000-person event space. The 42-acre public realm has a village hall (where the Battersea Power Station Community Choir rehearses), restaurants, a hairdresser’s, a cinema and a florist. The busy events programme includes food festivals, roller discos and exhibitions such as London Craft Week.
Park Hill in Sheffield is a 1960s housing estate built as part of an effort to clear slums after the war. At the time it was deemed an emblem of social change. However, by the 1990s families had moved out, crime had moved in and the facade had deteriorated. A £100m regeneration project is restoring the building to its Brutalist glory. Now, 700 people live and work on the estate. There is a 30,000sq ft workspace for digital and creative businesses and a rolling exhibition programme. A new mus
Unless you lived locally or were off to a football match, there was no call to visit Wembley. This is changing. The 85-acre site is now home to the 70-store London Designer Outlet, the Hilton hotel, the Troubadour theatre and more than 1,750 homes. Developer Quintain has the green light for a further 115,000 sq ft of office space, a primary school, two nurseries and an NHS health centre for 25,000 patients. The concrete-encased Olympic Way is being transformed into a 400m boulevard of trees.