Clockwise, from top left The plan for a square before Meridian Water station, with a school already built; the new station was linked up to Stratford in 2019, easing international and central London travel; the station, shortlisted for a New London Award last year, was designed by Karakusevic Carson Architects
ENLIGHTENED PLANNING 111
CASE STUDY MERIDIAN WATER, ENFIELD
Meridian Water is an ambitious £6bn development taking shape in the south of the London borough of Enfield, next door to the 10,000-acre Lee Valley Regional Park. The site in question has been occupied by scrubland or sprawling factories and big-box retail for decades. But the proximity to extensive parkland and the presence of multiple waterways in the site has been seized on as the key to a new neighbourhood’s identity as London’s ‘greenest development’. To this end, it will transform the current waste and scrubland into 8.2ha of greenery and planting, threading throughout the proposed 10,000 homes being delivered by Enfield Council. An initial Karakusevic Carson Architects (KCA) master plan places many of these on waterfront locations, and all of the housing blocks are closely connected via walking and cycle paths, with additional public transport delivering residents speedily to the central cluster of workspaces, retail and civic amenities. This 25-year development, operated by the Enfield borough, is aiming for ‘the highest quality of design and environmental sustainability standards’, and it is putting its money where its mouth is with the establishment of a council-owned energy company, called energetik – offering low carbon heat to all residents through a series of community heat networks, thereby hoping to reduce its carbon emissions from heating by 80%. In October 2020, Assael Architecture was announced as winner of a design competition to ensure greater social, environmental and economic sustainability in the scheme’s second phase.
Rather than fund development by selling off land, as local authorities have done for decades, Enfield has acquired 89 acres of land since April 2014, and now owns 74% of all developable land. The council is working in innovative ways with development partners to ensure that it retains control of the design, construction and delivery programme. Also impressive is a commitment to deliver a broad mix of homes from
affordable to shared ownership and private sale.
The first phase of home-building begins on Meridian One later in 2021. A new green space, Ladysmith Park, is now open and has been designed with local residents, groups and schools. A new station, Meridian Water, with fast links to Stratford – and, therefore, the Eurotunnel networks and central London – opened in 2019. Designed by KCA, the station was shortlisted for a 2020 New London Award. A new school is already on-site. And in 2020, work started to convert a former VOSA building into a creative studio workspace for key tenant Building BloQs, which will help to run the 30,000ft2
of
studio and work space, providing support for up to 1,000 makers and creators – from engineering and metalworkers to paint finishing and fashion designers. Vistry, the development partners for Meridian One, will be working with the council to create new skills training facilities on that site, with a waterside cafe, gardens and event space, all accessible to Enfield residents. In 2019, a designated meanwhile space was turned into one of Europe’s largest clubbing and events venues, The Drumsheds. It comprises 6,811m2
across four
large, refurbished industrial sheds, operating throughout the summer and autumn of 2019, and has been shortlisted for several awards. Employment is a key part of the scheme: 6,000 new jobs is the target, focusing on creative industries. At the start of 2021, Enfield Council announced that it had struck a deal with Troubadour Theatres, which will build film and television studios at Meridian Water, promising 450 permanent jobs once the facility is fully established, as a well as a skills academy for training local residents. While the emphasis is on
creating a self-sustaining community with little need to commute, businesses of all scales will be able to take advantage of fast access to supply chains of goods and skills with London and beyond, thanks to the close proximity of the North Circular Road, the A10 and M11.
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