Earls Court is an iconic place that offers a unique opportunity to deliver a masterplan that sets a new global standard for a sustainable and vibrant mixed-use development; a place for the innovative and the industrious.
Split between the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, Earls Court is an iconic place that offers a unique opportunity to deliver a masterplan that sets a new global standard for a sustainable and vibrant mixed-use development; a place for the innovative and the industrious. Our masterplan invites the world to discover wonder at central London’s largest cleared development site.
Once the site of the world-renowned Exhibition Centre, Earls Court is a place of exception, one of the last brownfields in Zone 1, and Central London’s most exciting development opportunity.
Our landscape-led framework plan for Earls Court will open up a 40-acre site that has been inaccessible for over 150 years. Earls Court will be an inspiring multigenerational neighbourhood with c. 4,000 new homes including affordable housing across a range of tenures. It will be a showcase for climate and clean innovation and skills with 2.9 million sq. ft. of flexible workspace contributing to around 12,000 jobs on site. We will celebrate nature, with twenty acres of public open space and green space, people first streets and squares, over 1,000 new trees and a flower amphitheatre. The site will include three new cultural and performance venues, providing an ecosystem for the future of creative talent, and up to 100 shops, cafes and restaurants. Finally, a new Community Hub, sports facilities, play spaces, up to two childcare facilities and spaces suitable for health, wellbeing and leisure uses, will respond to local needs.
Strategy
In 2020, the Earls Court Development Company (ECDC) embarked on a bold vision to “Bring the Wonder Back to Earls Court” on behalf of the Earls Court Partnership Limited, a joint venture between Delancey, APG and Transport for London.
Working for ECDC, and in collaboration Hawkins Brown, we have submitted a hybrid planning application. The plans create an environment that is reintegrated with its surroundings for the first time in 100 years and, in doing so, embraces the hopes and aspirations of the local community and the area.
The Mayor of London has identified the site as an Opportunity Area, setting high ambitions for the delivery of homes and employment in this part of London. Our framework plan builds upon this strategic incentive. It is also informed by our team's explorations into the future of mobility, the expanding role of the home, and the changing nature of the workplace.
Being a site of exceptionality, it is an opportunity to deliver a diverse range of uses with innovation at its core, delivering London's newest mixed-use district, welcoming London and the world back to Earls Court.
With excellent links to Heathrow, Slough, Reading and the Thames Valley, Earls Court holds the potential to become a showcase for the region's growth and exploration into climate and clean innovation and skills.
The Table Empress Place
Empress Place
The Cascade
Aigill Playtime Garden
Cascade Mopac
Specificity
Earls Court can become a unique, highly desirable and commercially competitive area that achieves and exceeds the place-making quality of other growth areas. The area re-affirms its position within West London as a mixed use quarter integrating homes, workplace, leisure and culture.
Our starting point was to work with what is already there, to retain key assets and reveal the hidden wonders of the site by reusing existing structures where possible.
Our proposals balance the legacy of Earls Court as a place of landmark attractions with the need to achieve physical, social and economic integration with the surrounding urban area.
To amplify nature in the local environment, we introduced a verdant stepping green and blue landscape. This breathes new life into the city, and offers opportunities to play in the heart of the city, as well as shape the experience of place via highly flexible public open spaces.
The submitted plans follow a series of meanwhile and permanent cultural interventions over the last four that have planted the seeds for the opportunities to come.
Sustainability
We have adopted a fundamentally landscape-led approach that puts nature first. Designs have a climate conscious approach and vehicle movement is kept to the periphery of the site to create a pedestrian focussed and highly connected heart. The site stitches into the local area and links existing public transport nodes to create a highly walkable and welcoming place.
New cycle links address the deficiencies to the current cycle network and we introduced new pedestrian links between surrounding communities and integrate the site into its contextual urban grain.
A comprehensive urban greening strategy throughout the site reduces noise and air pollution, creating a cleaner, quieter and healthier environment for living, working and leisure. Rich ecological corridors are created throughout the site with over 1,000 trees to help boost the local tree canopy cover and create ecological links between adjoining habitats. The framework plan reduces flood risk and achieves sustainable water management, including sustainable urban drainage.
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