Aylesbury Estate

Complex estate regeneration where exceptional design and delivery was crucial

Urban Initiatives was appointed to develop an Area Action Plan and masterplan for the Aylesbury Estate, a large housing estate of 2,500 homes on the southern edge of London’s Central Zone. The challenge was to enable the delivery of the comprehensive regeneration of the estate whilst bring the community on the journey and ensuring the highest quality of design and sustainability.

This high profile estate had been master planned several times before but little change had actually taken place. As a result the team had to overcome significant consultation fatigue through a number of innovative techniques including the establishment of a Neighbourhood Team, a Neighbourhood Game, and targeted methods such as texting and arts competitions.

Urban Initiatives prepared the masterplan and worked with a panel of architects to test the blocks and develop a variety of residential typologies.

The AAP was found sound and judged ‘exemplary’ by the inspector. It was adopted unanimously by Southwark Council Assembly in 2009.

The plan includes a number of innovations meaning that it is often used as an exemplar by government and others. This includes its function as a ‘Neighbourhood Plan’ and its use of an Infrastructure Tariff very similar to the Community Infrastructure Levy.

The London Borough of Southwark are in the process of delivering the regeneration with early phases complete and developer partners are on board to deliver subsequent phases.