Futurecity was appointed to develop a Cultural Placemaking Strategy that supports the delivery of Ballymore’s ambition for a new sustainable residential development in Ladbroke Grove, with a cultural identity formed from an ongoing and creative dialogue with the local communities that surround the former British Gas site.
Our intensive research and cultural audit identified a diverse and proud set of local communities that had provided Ladbroke with its distinctive character, visible in the large number of creative start-ups, individual practitioners, creative businesses, and cultural organisations surrounding the development. Our contextual research uncovered the DNA and authentic identity of the area. For over a century this part of West London has nurtured creative energy across the visual arts, graphic design, architecture, fashion, music, and theatre. It has welcomed waves of migration, home to Serbian Jews, WWII refugees, The Windrush Generation (Jamaica – and the wider Caribbean), Portuguese, Brazilian, Lebanese, and Persian residents. This fusion of European, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern cultures is made manifest along the Harrow Road – an axis that sits at the gateway to the site, connecting Project Flourish to its neighbours in Brent and Westminster Councils.
The strategy sets out a compelling vision and narrative, articulating an authentic West London aesthetic, and the importance of conserving the local heritage and cultural DNA of the site, whilst examining and identifying the core trends and areas of opportunity for the commercial and cultural spaces available across the site. The resulting Project Flourish presented opportunities for the rediscovery and renewal of one of London’s most diverse, eclectic, and enriched cultural centres.
The former industrial site at the north of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea offers an opportunity to bring together the concentration of Grassroots Cultural Production in the north, the World Class Institutions along Exhibition Road and the Design District aspirations to the south (Brompton Design District, Exhibition Road, Olympia and Earls Court) world class destinations for cultural exhibition, presents an exciting opportunity, which we have titled ‘Project Flourish’ where Ladbroke Grove can emerge as a centre for creative enterprise, cultural production and innovative design.
Our vision and cultural masterplan tackle the challenges presented by the extent that over the last 40 years, West London has lost key cultural infrastructure for grassroots talent to learn and grow and outlines 12 project opportunities across a 10-year period that would establish a bespoke and iterative cultural placemaking programme. The key aim is to create a flagship incubator initiative that would deliver a new paradigm on how to nurture local creative talent, support and grow local businesses, commission meaningful art in the public realm and facilitate an ecosystem of enterprise and purposeful living.
