Several years ago the University of Westminster removed its much admired wild flower meadow telling Wembley Matters this was due to maintenance costs. No connection. of course, with the One Public Estate plans for the redevelopment of Northwick Park including new University accommodation and teaching facilities.
Today the cowslips seemed to have done more than just survice, or perhaps they are fresh seeding. They looked glorious in the sunshine.
There is considerable green space on the University site which is actually in the London Borough of Brent. It includes some impressive trees in the grounds so I hope that its importance and preservation will be taken into account as the regeneration gathers pace.
Today's photograph is certainly a contrast with yesterday's update on the flats being built nearby.
From Brent Council website:
What is happening in Northwick Park?
Brent Council, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (Northwick Park Hospital), the University of Westminster and Network Homes (a local housing association based in Wembley) are committed to working in partnership to promote the redevelopment of the land at Northwick Park to deliver new homes and jobs.
The four organisations have joined forces through the OPE (One Public Estate) programme - an established national programme which looks to encourage public sector organisations to use their property and land assets together. The OPE programme awarded over £0.5m to the four organisations to support the plans for Northwick Park. Brent Council have also been awarded £9.9m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund for infrastructure works.
Vision
There is a collective vision amongst all four organisations that will transform Northwick Park to become an important local landmark, delivering new high-quality homes, increased investment in our local hospital, improved infrastructure and transport connections, as well as enhanced facilities for education and employment.
Proposals include:
- Complete redevelopment of the land between the hospital and the park
- Approximately 1,600 new homes including affordable homes
- Outline plans for new University accommodation and teaching facilities
- Improved roads and junctions for better access to the hospital and new housing
- Better pedestrian and cycle connections across the site
- New public open spaces and green spaces
- New commercial and community uses to help the new area of Brent thrive
- Care and cycle parking spaces for new residents
https://www.brent.gov.uk/business/regeneration/growth-areas/northwick-park
7 comments:
Yes the path needs urgent restoration as part of the regeneration. It is very bus with pedestian hospital traffic. The fence is falling down and it is not wide enough for the volume of traffic when used by people with walking aids or wheelchairs. Lighting is essential. If you would like a closer view of the cowslips you can go through the main university entrance or access via the coffee shop's outdoor seating area. Apart from the main group of cowslips shown in the video there are many scattered more thinly on the approach.
Sorry LG, your comment was accidentally removed. This is your comment that I responded to above: The cowslips are beautiful and I hope they stay. There is an alleyway from the tube station to the hospital where they can be seen. Unfortunately all of the streetlighting to the alleyway has recently been smashed, so I would not want to walk there in the dark. Just to the left, before entering the alley from the station end, there is a patch where a group of young trees has been planted. Unfortunately I don't think they are being cared for, as more than half look dead.
Cowslips are one of my favourite wild flowers, inspired by seeing a mass of them in a water meadow while out cycling in the East Sussex countryside as a teenager.
About 25 years ago, I bought a packet of cowslip seeds from a reputable wildflower charity and scattered them across a patch of grass in our garden. We have enjoyed cowslips every Spring since then - the flowers produce lots of seeds, which spread easily in the breeze.
One year in the past we had so many, that I potted some of them up and donated them to a plant sale at Roe Green Walled Garden. When I visited that garden recently, I was pleased to see cowslips in flower (earlier than mine, which are now flowering beautifully).
If there is any spare green space left in the Northwick Park redevelopment, I'm pretty confident that cowslips will survive - probably long after the new homes there have been demolished!
:-)
Had the misfortune to visit the Hospital recently and saw the construction works, how depressing, who on earth would choose to live there? only the homeless and desperate.
Or wealthy students from goodness know where
Post a Comment