Greysmith Associates have secured funding from the Mayor of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to turn a dead-end street into a pocket park.
The proposals will transform a neglected street, previously only used for car parking, into an animated space accommodating a new cycle route, a SuDS system and an outdoor café space.
The design will make a place that becomes a key meeting point for pedestrians and cyclists who also can take advantage of a re-organised gallery, theatre and café on offer at Oxford House, the adjacent community and arts centre, who worked with Greysmith Associates to develop the scheme.
The SuDS initiative is central to the project. Rainwater from the roof of the Victorian Oxford House building as well as all surface water run-off will feed a rain garden and swale, reducing the amount of water that enters the drainage system. Thames Water Utilities are donating a series of attenuating planters to the project, given the potential as an exemplar scheme.
John Ryan, Chief Executive of Oxford House is thrilled with the outcome of the project and has praised the landscape architecture lead: “Greysmith Associates have managed to achieve technical innovation and true place-making in a finely balanced design that will transform our immediate outdoor space, opening up significant new potential for the local area where previously none existed”.
The project is expected to be completed by April 2014.
IMAGE CREDIT | Greysmith Associates
