Stamford Hill
CLIENT
London Borough of Hackney
PRINCIPAL
STAKEHOLDERS
London Borough of Hackney
PROJECT TEAM
Plan Projects, Jan Kattein Architects, Atkins, Ecos Maclean
LOCATION
Stamford Hill, North London
budget
£56,000
Summary
Plan Projects was appointed Lead Consultant within a multi-disciplinary team to support the client prepare an evidence base, policy recommendations and design framework to act as the foundation for an Area Action Plan for Stamford Hill, a large neighbourhood in North London of around 60,000 people.
The brief required an assessment of community need for housing, educational infrastructure, nursery facilities, open spaces, children’s play facilities, health and religious infrastructure at two intervals: 2025 and 2035. The final deliverable to the client was an ‘Evidence Base Report’ bringing together the various themes in one set of recommendations.
Context
Located in the north of the borough, Stamford Hill is a handsome predominantly Victorian suburb that has, over the last 100 years, become home to a mixed community, including one of the largest settlements of Charedi Jews (a group within Jewish Orthodoxy) in the UK.
Planning has become an acute issue; the Jewish community has specific needs, but these are, at times, seen as incompatible with those of other groups. The Area Action Plan seeks to soothe these difficulties by providing leadership and identifying areas of common ground; it aims to offer a vision that may be shared by all sections of the community and a policy agenda to support long term economic, environmental and social sustainability.
Community
Notwithstanding the clear cultural influence of the Jewish community, Stamford Hill is an extremely diverse neighbourhood. To understand its needs and priorities, the practice designed a programme of street survey events; over ten sessions the team were able to conduct face to face questionnaire-based interviews with 486 people. This approach proved very effective in acheiving a wide range of perspectives from the principal social, ethnic and religious groups. For example, it enabled consultants to assist those with difficulty speaking English complete the survey thereby reaching out to people would otherwise have been excluded.
The result was some clear pointers indicating where policy development should focus expressed through ‘drivers of change’ set out in the Evidence Base Report document. Particular priorities included a need to modernise the library, the lack of swimming pools (one of the few forms of sport acceptable to Charedi Jews), the shortage of cafés and pubs and a powerful and persistent call for better harmony and understanding among the different resident communities.
Plans Role
Plan was responsible for producing the evidence base and policy recommendations documents. In addition, as lead consultant, we managed the project team and ensured the main deliverables addressed the brief and were completed on time. The final submission, the Evidence Base Report, was a joint document produced with Jan Kattein Architects.
OUTPUTS
Stamford Hill AAP Evidence Base, Community Consultation report, Public Realm Strategy, Town Centres and retail strategy, Policy Recommendations, Evidence Base Report.
