The Earls Court Development Company (ECDC) has presented the feedback gained from that engagement, shared its emerging concepts to deliver the vision, and launched a new round of consultation with the community.

There was an apparent response to focus on three key areas:

  • Make a place for everyone with green and open spaces to enjoy.
  • Create space for culture to reflect the site’s legacy.
  • Support jobs and investment have been lacking since the exhibition halls closed.

The emerging concepts unveiled form the basis of plans that seek to create something truly outstanding, resilient and adaptable, befitting of this extraordinary and strategically important part of our capital city. Championing innovation will be central to plans to genuinely reflect the seismic changes that continue to impact how we live, work and spend time.

As part of an ambition to go beyond net zero, these plans focus on celebrating and retaining key structures on the site. Plans include an idea to re-purpose the existing deck over the West London Line (known as “The Table”). The Table would become the heart of a significant flexible green open space and looking to create a unique feature of the Lillie Bridge Depot Building as a potential London destination for markets and maker spaces.

Earls Court was a place of global wonder and discovery, and the ambition to lead through innovation, ingenuity and entertainment inspires to this day. With an aspiration to embrace this legacy, ECDC is also exploring how a new world-class cultural offer could be layered through the site. ECDC plan to create a forward-looking mixed-use community, with a range of workspaces for over 12,000 jobs, alongside the delivery of around 4,500 homes of different tenures, including low-cost rental and affordable homes.

Rob Heasman, ceo of The Earls Court Development Company, said:

“Having set the vision to bring the wonder back to Earls Court, we have been listening, and we will continue to ensure our designs reflect what we are learning. The local community has been very clear on its priorities for the site, which have been fundamental to how we begin to realise the potential of this huge opportunity.

“We are enormously ambitious for what we want to achieve here, to go beyond net zero, champion innovation and create something truly special to reflect the global profile of Earls Court of which local people and Londoners can be proud.”

The Earls Court Development Company is committed to speaking and listening to as many residents as they can about their evolving proposals to ensure the plans are as inclusive as possible. ECDC has launched a dedicated youth engagement programme, ‘The Earls Court Futures Programme’ and a Public Realm Inclusivity Panel, which seeks to engage individuals that usually don’t have their voices heard in consultation.

ECDC has launched the next consultation stage on June 25 with retail space on Lillie Road named ‘Conversation Corner’ brought back into use, alongside master planning workshops, community fun days, pop-ups at tube stations and local markets, and an online survey.

 

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