Next to Olympic Way and opposite Brook Avenue and Wembley Park Station the College of North West London, Wembley Campus, is familiar to local residents and generation of students. The Wealdstone Brook runs through the grounds and there were trees and shrubs, and a bridge over the brook, that formed a 'secret garden' amongst the rising concrete. On the other side of the road the brook is thickly wooded on both banks - few ever peer over to see the brook rippling under the road.
The pictures below are of the grounds and college as it was until very recently:
United Colleges have sold on this site and that of Dudden Hill for development and a new merged college is being built at the junction of Olympic Way and Fulton Road. Demolition of the former Network Housing office on that site is underway.
Now the College site is surrounded by black hoarding on Bridge Road/ Empire Way. Demolition is also on its way.
From the Bridge Road memorial space vantage point (near where the bus stop used to be) you can see the extent of clearance. Will the Wealdstone Brook be proteected from pollution during the demolition and building phases during the development phase?
There appears to be only one tree remaining. So what will be built on the college site?
A 31 storey and 18 storey building (they've kept the tree)
There is also an approved development in the pipeline of the Stadium Retail Park, McDonalds and the Troubadour Theatre that are next to the above building.
The overall changes are illustrated by the image below (I have superimposed the buildings on the college site) where you can barely see Olympic Way.
The new college building will be on the site of the ex Network Housing HQ (the brown building at the the junction of Fulton Road and Olympic Way) where work has already taken place removing some trees.
The design of the new college building is in contrast to the high rises that will surround it:
16 comments:
Shocking overdevelopment of this site - more wildlife destruction and another area will be cast into shade by another huge tower block.
When will this ever stop???
What percentage of these towerblocks are occupied by people? Are we feeling the increased population there yet?
London Borough of Bent
Is this not linked to the sister site at Dollis Hill, with the current college building being replaced by a similarly hideous over development?
Yes I agree that this destruction of wildlife for tower blocks should stop as soon as possible.
What a hideous replacement planned, just like all the other towers crammed into Wembley
This whole area is now SO cold most of the time because of the shade from the tall buildings and it’s become a wind tunnel. Especially Rutherford way. Was really hoping they use this site for something better than cramming 100s more people into the area. Even a hotel would have been better.
Brent LA do not care at all about supporting and protecting the environment, building tower blocks that block out sunlight and lack green open spaces, seems to be their policy ☹️
Yes I agree that Brent Council do not seem to care about the environment and a change needs to happen in local as as well as national housing policy regarding the growth of all these tower blocks.
The Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) in Northwick Park ward are being destroyed by several nature haters and Brent Council do nothing. The Ducker site has had trees cut down and ground cleared for rough sleepers to build their own housing units; there are at least 3 large buildings on site. The Golf Course have grubbed out the ancient hedgerows and installed plastic grass and allowed unlicensed waste on site, then there are the new floodlights lighting up the entire SINC at night, and the adjoining Ducker woods. Not forgetting the rubbish laying around the site including loose netting to catch unsuspecting wildlife. The developers at the rear of Northwick Park Hospital have removed a protected hedgerow and destroyed many metres of another protected hedgerow to show off their show homes in a pretty garden setting. They also floodlight the entire area at night. Come on Brent, don't you care just a little bit? We thank the Harrow Litter Pickers for recently clearing most of the rubbish left by rough sleepers etc throughout the Ducker area.
Brent residents should find out which candidates in the upcoming Council Elections on 07/05/2026 are actually going to stand against more over development around Wembley and other parts of this borough too.
https://www.cprelondon.org.uk/
When Labour in Brent get kicked out of power.
Did not Labour allow 7,000 units of Student Flats in Brent (they don't pay Council Tax) - and then realised that they allowed too many and had to stop because they 'had a negative impact on the character of the area'? The same can be said about all the Labour pushed for 30 storey tower blocks which are so damaging to our local environment.
Yes I agree that they went ahead with the above actions in respect of allowing all these student flats and 30 storey tower blocks which create an adverse effect upon our local area.
There won't be as much public space as the image suggests. More towers, no sunlight, alleys- the more likely final scenario in urban de-regulated Brent.
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