Wembley Park

Culture and Placemaking Strategy – 2016 (6 Months)

Futurecity was appointed to devise a radical new culture and placemaking strategy for the scheme surrounding the iconic Wembley Stadium. Wembley Park is the largest build to rent development site in the UK in an otherwise suburban borough, being delivered at a faster pace than anywhere else in London. As such it required a strategy that would create a vision that would offer a sense of place in a rapidly changing, monumental environment and a cultural identity that could shift perceptions of Wembley from a remote location far from the cultural centre of London, to a confident new Creative District.

To achieve this Futurecity worked across Quintain’s teams to challenge how they saw their site, flipping the masterplan on its head and viewing Olympic Way as a cultural spine, feeding into a series of distinct creative neighbourhoods. A set of 5 cultural principles and 3 cross-cutting themes based on Wembley’s unique music, sport and cultural heritage, cultural assets and development ambitions, provided a framework for cultural programming, commissions and partnerships, that together could establish a new Creative District for London.

The strategy helped put cultural placemaking at the heart of Quintain’s plans for Wembley Park, drawing together commercial, development, marketing and design teams under a unified vision and governance structure. This led to key initiatives including the first Music and Events-focused Boxpark, artist studios created in partnership with Second Floor Studios, a permanent creative community facility at the Yellow, and a dedicated programme of activation and public art.

Public Art Strategy – 2017

On the back of the Culture and Placemaking Strategy, Futurecity was asked to develop a further Public Art Strategy to help shape the vision into an integrated framework for public art commissioning.

The strategy lays out a structure for the briefing, commissioning and review of permanent and temporary installations that crucially includes of a range of stakeholders and community voices in decision making to engender a genuine sense of ownership towards commissioned artworks, and Wembley Park as a place.

Culture and Placemaking Strategy Delivery 2018-20 (on-going)

By 2018, Wembley Park’s ambitions to be a hub for creativity and culture was delivering tangible results including a new theatre in partnership with Troubadour Theatre, an new cultural venue at The Corner, embedded outdoor performance infrastructure throughout Olympic Way and the wider site, and a regular year-round programme of publicly-accessible events. This enhanced cultural offer helped support the London Borough of Brent’s winning bid to be London Borough of Culture 2020.

In light of these successes, Futurecity was reappointed to assess the delivery of culture and placemaking to date and create recommendations to enhance Wembley Park plans in the lead up to 2020. Working across Wembley Park’s marketing, development, design and retail departments, Futurecity developed a set of recommendations that identify how Wembley Park can lift its cultural ambition by connecting its diverse cultural activities, helping identify and attract game changing cultural anchor organisations and creative industries, and securing Quintain’s position as a cultural player in the eyes of the cultural sector, local and city government.

In December 2019, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and Quintain announced a major partnership that will see the Orchestra move its headquarters to Wembley Park from May 2020.  The RPO’s role as a key arts anchor tenant represents a major milestone in the transformation of Wembley Park into a new cultural neighbourhood for North West London, with music at its heart. The partnership was brokered by Futurecity, who helped both parties develop a shared vision to establish a creative hub bringing together education, community outreach, performance, digital projects and administration in a single location. (Press Release)