Wembley Park visitors and residents of Wembley Park will be familiar with the Samovar Open Space with its concert shell and play area at the foor of the stadium steps. This is what Brent Council wrote about it:
Seen & Heard and the Apprenticeship gave young people aged 16-24 a voice in the design and management of their local public spaces at Wembley Park.The outcome includes Samovar Space, a purpose-built area at the foot of the Olympic Steps and Wembley Stadium, designed for and by young people as part of the Apprenticeship in City Design.
Samovar Space is an inclusive space designed for and by young. The aim was to design a place to ‘just be’. It features dining, shelter and collaborative areas, including a purpose-built platform that will play host to events for young people throughout the year.
The engagement with young people sustained over four years and sees young adults aged 16-24, who are often overlooked by conventional development and planning, working with architects and developers to co-create spaces and places that are welcoming for them.
This is the space now following removal of the concert shell;
Now Wembley Park residents are protesting that they have neither been seen nor heard over potential redevelopment of the site butare suspicious after seeing surveying work in progress:
It seems as though Quintain have decided that they are going to exercise their old planning permission for the NW04 site right next to Wembley Library, which will result in the destruction of the Market Square and Samovar Space community spaces.
The sound shell bandstand was removed from the Samovar Space, ironically during the night after Wembley Park’s recent Coldplay community event, held in the sound shell. Wembley Park and Quintain celebrated the event and the community space on social media that evening, though didn’t mention in those posts that right after the event they were dismantling the sound shell.
They aren’t being open with the local community or with existing or new renters in their Landsby East building (which is directly next to the construction) as to what their plans are, or that a major construction site will be appearing next door.
The planning permission was granted many years ago, before there was anything in the area, but now there is a significant local population with large residential buildings all-around, plus the space between Wembley Library and Olympic Way has become a vibrant and much used community space that is also useful for Wembley Stadium events (the old Silver Car Park space is often used for merch areas or fan zones).
It sounds as though they are planning to construct a boutique hotel in the space, with a small and uninspiring paved square as a concession to Brent Council. This in no way replaces the trees in Market Square or the multifunctional space that exists currently.
It’s hugely disappointing that local residents are a) not being given any sort of consultation opportunity and b) Quintain are not being transparent and pro-active about informing the community of what is going on.
A resident spotted the sound shell dumped in the nearby Union Park:
The public space was the result of Brent Council reaching an agreement with Quintain not to build on NW04 in order to provide a public space beside the Civic Centre. This was part of the £17.8m CIL money that Brent Council paid Quintain for Olympic Way improvements, including the demolition of the pedway and installation of the stadium steps.
The NW04 site in context
Extract from Cabinet Report 24th July 2017:
Cabinet approve a contribution of up to £17.8 million towards the delivery of the Olympic Way Zones B and C.
2.2 That such a contribution would be contingent on Quintain:
a) Not pursuing development of site NW04 adjacent to the Civic Centre to the extent currently permitted in the parameters plans associated with outline planning permission 10/3032
b) Working with the Council to deliver a development that better complements the role and setting of the Civic Centre, in particular creating a significant new square outside the Civic Centre Library
c) Agreeing a business plan and heads of terms, between Quintain and the council, for the future sharing and reinvestment of net income generated through assets on Olympic Way.
Apart from the Samovar Open Space, trees and the orange seating area the space outside the Civic Centre has also been used for market stalls:
Interestingly what appeared to be future plans for the space appeared on the website of Flanagan Lawrence, leading Wembley Park architects,
https://www.flanaganlawrence.com/nw04
but the page was taken down, perhaps as a result of residents asking questions.
I am still waiting for answers to my enquiries of a week ago about future use of the site from Quintain and Brent Planning and have tried again today. Residents also report a wall of silence:
Several residents have shared that they've since also reached-out to Brent Council (the two Wembley Park Councillors and also Cllr. Butt) and have equally had radio silence. One said they asked Wembley Park's event manager, who also evaded answering the question.
Another said they had reached-out to Quintain Living's head of operations for clarity seeing as they had just signed a 12 month contract in the Landsby East building and no-one mentioned anything about future construction work, again, radio silence.
It seems as though they are trying to do 'something' with the site, but for whatever reason do not want the community to know any details...
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