Bringing homes, jobs and green space to Edgware

Edgware’s town centre could be transformed if Ballymore’s plans for its regeneration can be realised. Over the last four years, we have been working with thousands of local people and our industry partners on proposals to bring homes, jobs, green spaces, shops, cafes, a cinema, healthcare and leisure facilities to this area of north London.

With the planning application for the site now submitted, Ballymore Developments Director Simon Ryan outlines the regeneration vision, how it has been shaped by the community, and what the company is doing to help meet London’s housing needs.

How was the vision for Edgware formed?

In the four years since we bought the Broadwalk Shopping Centre,, we have embedded ourselves in the community, meeting thousands of individuals and spending hundreds of hours on site listening to people. We converted a retail unit in the shopping centre to ‘The Meeting Room’ - a space to meet stakeholders, residents and visitors, to understand how the area works, what they like about it and what its shortcomings are. Ultimately, we’ve shaped our proposals for the town centre to try and meet those needs. Our outreach efforts have since been shortlisted for a number of industry awards – we’re proud of that. 

Importantly, we’ve formed a partnership with Places for London – Transport for London’s property company - which owns the adjacent bus depot site. That’s allowed us to bring forward both sites as a single 25.4-acre piece of land and create a more joined-up town centre experience.

What did local people say about the town centre?

While many users enjoy the convenience of the existing covered shopping centre with its ample car parking, people have also come to realise that the place isn’t serving the purpose that it could. They noted that there’s a lack of green space and space to meet; the long high street adjacent to the site (Station Road) has just one public bench where people can sit and talk. 

People also noted that there’s a lack of things for families, young adults and children to do, particularly evenings and weekends. It’s a healthy high street in many ways, but visitors tend to drive in, shop and drive out; there’s no reason to stay.

Tell us about the vision for the site?

Firstly, the vision addresses the housing need identified by the borough. Under the masterplan, we want to deliver almost 3,500 homes, up to 35% of those being Affordable.

Retail and commercial space will be more than doubled to enable the Sainsbury’s supermarket on the site to have a new, bigger store and give space for new or improved uses that complement the high street, like cafes, restaurants, library, a cinema, and health and fitness facilities.

We’re looking to improve public transport options, by repositioning bus stops closer to the Underground station and relocating the bus depot under ground. Making the town centre more accessible is important, so we’ve incorporated more access to public realm, better walking routes and cycle hubs into our proposal.

The masterplan – by Howells Architects - features a series of big town squares off the high street. There’s 4.8 hectares of open space proposed on site, including a hectare of play space – the equivalent of 38 tennis courts. In addition, 1.9 hectares of operational land adjacent to the Northern Line, which contain the passing Deans Brook and have become an important local natural resource opened to the public for the first time in 100 years renovating existing operational pathways closed to the public. 

What impact will this project have?

It has the potential to be massively transformational. This is one of the most under-utilised yet well connected town centres in London, with the Edgware Underground on site and 20 bus routes serving the bus station. It’s the right place for higher density development.

We recognise our proposals mean big change for the area, but so did the London Underground when it arrived in the fields of Edgware a century ago. This will, we believe, make Edgware a place where people want to live, providing homes for everyone, for the next one hundred years and beyond.

Once it is up and running, the development will provide nearly 1,400 jobs, and thousands of jobs will also be created during its construction.

How is Ballymore working to meet London’s housing needs more generally?

We’re committed to delivering new housing for London. The end of last year (2023) we submitted a planning application for 2,500 homes in Ladbroke Grove. Edgware and Ladbroke Grove are two of the biggest residential-led planning applications in London this year and will be key to delivering on the capital’s housing needs. We now have around 10,000 homes submitted for planning in London. 

To keep in touch with the latest news on the Edgware Town Centre project, sign up for our updates on the consultation website here.