Engaging the Community in Elephant Park’s Public Realm
Elephant Park, a £2.5 billion regeneration project in the heart of Elephant & Castle, is centred around the largest new green space in central London for 70 years. To ensure the new 2-acre park reflects local aspirations, Lendlease opened the opportunity to those who live in, work in or visit Elephant Park to input into the designs of the Park.
- 17 Apr 2020
- by
- Lendlease Author Better Places
Elephant Park is not only providing high quality homes, jobs and business opportunities, but also bringing new green spaces to Elephant & Castle. Envisaged as the heart and jewel of the Elephant Park development, Lendlease wanted to ensure that local people’s ideas and views were considered from the outset of designing for the 2-acre public park.
Public consultation has been an important part of the ongoing community engagement with the local community since Elephant Park began. It is required as part of the statutory planning process, however, Lendlease also values Community Inclusion as part of its Sustainability Framework, aiming to create thriving communities that are rich in culture and context.
The consultation programme for the Park took place between March and September 2019 and aimed to engage a wide variety of stakeholders through four different approaches:
- A series of Community Workshops were held, engaging representatives from local community stakeholder groups and local schools.
- A Walking Tour was organised for representatives of the local ‘Friends of the Park’ group to discuss what works in the area and ideas for the park
- A Public Exhibition took place where members of Lendlease and the design team were available to guide visitors through materials on display and answer questions.
- A series of ‘temporary park’ pop-ups were set up in various locations around Elephant & Castle which featured artificial grass, garden furniture, games and showcased information panels of initial design ideas and images.
In total, over 500 people attended consultations and engagement events associated with the Park. This was achieved through hosting a variety of activities across the surrounding area of the development, to reach as many people as possible. Valuable feedback was collected from the public, including topics like access, landscape designs, play facilities and park management. The Park design team responded by making changes to the plans that reflect key feedback areas.
