Southall Gasworks was one of the most strategic brownfield sites remaining in west London. The 33.7 hectare gasworks site is landlocked between the adjacent Grand Union Canal and Minet Country Park to the west, national rail network to the south and dense residential development to the north.
Careful design detail was required around how the mixed use development would be integrated into the surrounding urban context to provide public space at ground and roof level.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) adopted Supplementary Planning Guidance for Providing for Children and Young People’s Play and Informal Recreation, March 2008 was used to calculate the area and type of space provision. The GLA regarded the masterplan approach as an ‘exemplary example to how development should address and incorporate these play requirements’. When the masterplan was presented to Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment (CABE) in April 2009 they applauded the overall ambition of this masterplan for the Southall gasworks site stating ‘the masterplan promises to radically improve permeability and connectivity with and between surrounding areas.’
The 25 year construction programme will see 3,750 homes built with 10,000 people expected to move in, a new business & leisure hub, community buildings & more than 40 acres of public open space including two new parks. Thirty six times the size of Trafalgar Square, it is one of the best new villages being built in London.
With Lovejoy
