Placemaking Insights

Reimaginging London: A Placemaking Approach

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:04:46 GMT

Restoring London's Status as a World-Class City

London is celebrated as a world-class city, renowned and beloved for its iconic history and heritage, beautiful and expansive green spaces, and vibrant culture, retail and hospitality sectors. Yet, there is a growing sense that London is losing its way. A recent Telegraph article [1] argues just that, outlining 10 things [2] we should focus on to make the city great again. While the suggestions are sensible and seemingly straightforward, do they miss the point? Do we need to consider the city from a placemaking perspective?

Beyond Quick Fixes

Placemaking invites us to see the city not as a collection of isolated problems, but as an interconnected ecosystem. It allows us to consider each of these suggestions as part of a wider whole, encouraging nuance and recognising that what works in one district may not suit another. At its core, effective placemaking is about engaging with communities by listening to understand their needs, while also being bold and innovative in tackling today’s social, economic, environmental and urban problems.

To truly future-proof London, we need to think both short and long term. This means alongside quick wins (high impact interventions), we need policy tools and strategies that are both deliverable and capable of attracting sustained investment.

Designing for Diversity

In focusing on the well-acknowledged poor night-time economy offer, could we also consider what it is like to be a shift worker, cleaner, or open shop in the early hours? Developing a strategy for the evening and night-time per borough is helpful, but unless boroughs are supported with tools to change current approaches, the impact of this is likely limited.

Placemaking offers a lens to design for diversity of use: daytime commerce, inclusive wellness for all, evening culture, late-night safety. It means ensuring that public spaces are not just walkable, but welcoming with seating, shade, lighting and programming that invites people to linger, not just pass through.

The article’s concern with “dodgy candy shops” and “creaking infrastructure” is valid, but the solution isn’t just enforcement or investment . It’s curation. It’s about creating the conditions for authentic, community-rooted enterprise to thrive. That means affordable rents, leveraging planning and licensing tools, and support for independent businesses and cultural venues.

From Al Fresco to Enduring Hospitality

There is a need to embed great hospitality as the expectation, rather than the exception. One of the most visible—and joyful—transformations of London’s streets in recent years has been the rise of al fresco dining. What began as a pandemic workaround has become a placemaking opportunity. Outdoor dining enlivens pavements, supports local businesses, and fosters a sense of conviviality that cities like Paris and Barcelona have long embraced, and we have admired. But for this to endure, it needs more than temporary licenses and plastic barriers. It needs design-led infrastructure: high-quality street furniture, weather protection and integration with pedestrian flows. It also needs to be sensitively managed through careful operation, with support from local authorities.

Climate Resilience

The changing climate should be central to any placemaking agenda. The city faces rising temperatures, increased flood risk and worsening air quality. While London in the sunshine is hard to beat, evidence suggests that extreme weather events are likely to increase in frequency and intensity in the coming years. There is opportunity to respond not just through planting of trees or installing air conditioning, but in considering retrofitting, green infrastructure, permeable surfaces and cooling public spaces. What gives these interventions impact is that they are not just engineered or environmental interventions – they are social too. A shaded bench, a rain garden, or a pocket park can make a street more inclusive, more beautiful and more resilient. What would it take for London to become ecologically intelligent, where sustainability is stitched into the everyday experience of urban life?

Conclusion

Good placemaking is both strategic and sensitive. It listens to local voices, reflects local identity and builds in flexibility for future change. That’s the heart of placemaking: not just designing spaces, but empowering people to shape them.

Footnotes

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/make-london-great-again/

[2] The Telegraph’s 10 things to restore London as a world class city:

1. Pedestrianise the West End

2. Improve the phone signal

3. Learn to deal with any type of weather

4. Make visitors sign a pledge to follow the rules

5. Plant more trees

6. Stay open past 11pm

7. Charge foreign tourists to visit our museums

8. Banish surly service

9. Give us more medium-sized music venues

10. Embark on a campaign of beautification

What Climate Change Means for Placemaking

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 22:32:45 GMT

Heat Waves Are the New Normal:

This Requires a Revolution in Placemaking

Released on 14th July, Bastille Day , the Met Office’s 2025 Annual Climate Assessment is a timely reminder that the values of liberté, égalité, and fraternité must now guide how we shape our cities. With the UK warming by at least 0.25°C per decade and the number of days with temperatures 10C above the average for 1961-1990 quadrupled in the last 10 years, placemaking must lead intentional change to protect people, nature and our shared planet .

Responsible governments and businesses recognise this warming trend is fuelling more frequent and intense heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and flooding. This risks our health and places unprecedented pressure on urban infrastructure and public spaces.

For the built environment professions, this is an urgent call to rise-up. Climate resilience must now be embedded into every place, public realm and highway project. That means designing spaces and routes that can cool cities during heatwaves, absorb and manage excess rainfall, and provide safe, inclusive environments year-round. Green infrastructure, such as tree canopies, rain gardens, and permeable surfaces must become standard, not optional. Equally important is designing our places so cycling and walking, EV infrastructure and public transport are fully prioritised in our cities.

Moreover, placemaking should foster climate literacy in its profession so the places we shape not only withstand change, they lead it by example.

Égalité demands that we design inclusive spaces that shield the most vulnerable from climate shocks. Fraternité calls for co-creation and genuine partnership-led responses to green spaces that cool, connect, and empower. And liberté means ensuring everyone has access to safe routes so we can choose to walk or cycle, our public realm is resilient, and government processes facilitate the delivery of accelerated change.

From tree canopies to permeable cycle routes, climate-conscious design is no longer optional. It is a civic duty.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2025/annual-climate-stocktake-shows-weather-records-and-extremes-now-the-norm-in-uk-climate

Placemaking to deliver renewable energy

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 08:05:27 GMT

Powering Places: What the UK’s New Solar and Wind Strategies

Mean for Placeshaping

As the UK accelerates its journey toward becoming a clean energy superpower , two major government announcements this month mark a turning point for how we plan, design, and deliver sustainable places. The launch of the UK Solar Roadmap and the Onshore Wind Strategy signals a bold shift in national energy policy, one that has profound implications for placemaking, regeneration, and local economies.

At Placemaking London, we see these changes not just as energy policy but as essential placeshaping opportunities.

Solar Energy: From Rooftops to Regeneration

The government’s new UK Solar Roadmap outlines a strategy to triple solar capacity by 2035, with a strong emphasis on rooftop solar for homes, schools, and commercial buildings. This includes:

Solar canopies on car parks
Commercial buildings solar, which can reduce energy costs by 40-80%, including a streamlined approach for solar on leased commercial buildings
New funding and guidance to support local authorities and housing associations in deploying solar
A push for solar-ready new builds, aligning with the Future Homes Standard
Support for community energy schemes
Speedier planning decisions, where solar infrastructure is considered to be of a Critical National Priority for the provision of nationally significant low carbon infrastructure
Creation of 18,000 new jobs over the next five years

Onshore Wind: A New Era of Local Power

After nearly a decade of stagnation, the UK’s first Onshore Wind Strategy aims to unlock up to 10 GW of new capacity by 2030. Key measures include:

Reintroducing onshore wind into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime
Streamlining planning processes and updating guidance for local authorities
Encouraging community benefit schemes and local investment in wind infrastructure
Creation of 45,000 new jobs

Implications for placemaking

Over the next 25 years, city and town landscapes will need to change significantly to support climate change mitigation and adaptation, economic growth, new homes, local food production, clean energy, health and wellbeing and nature recovery. To shift to renewable energy, we predict the changes in cities and towns will include:

Designing for solar and wind power will become a core part of placeshaping and masterplanning, especially in mixed-use and residential developments
Embedding energy infrastructure into the early stages of spatial planning, rather than as an afterthought, but as a design driver
Mission-focused cross-sector collaboration between planners, developers, energy providers, businesses and communities
Reframing energy as a public good—one that can power not just homes, but healthier, more equitable places
Integrating solar, such as at car parks, with greening, to improve urban landscape aesthetics, support nature recovery and aid climate adaptation
Community engagement will be key—solar cooperatives and local ownership models can build trust and resilience
Landscape-sensitive design will be critical—integrating turbines into rural and fringe of cities and towns settings without compromising character

Our Role at Placemaking London

We’re already working with local authorities, Business Improvement Districts and property owners to integrate net-zero strategies, community energy models, and climate-responsive design into their projects. These new national policies give us the tools—and the mandate—to go further. We’re here to help shape places that are powered by purpose.

The Need to Deliver Growth Through New Infrastructure

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:42:18 GMT

The UK economy’s growth rate has fallen behind other nations since the crash of the financial markets in 2008 and more recently the UK’s forecast growth rate has flatlined. A normal growth rate for a developed economy is in the region of 2-3% per annum and so a good growth rate – which the UK ought to aspire to – would be in the region of 5% or more. China is at 4.5% and India at 6.5% for reference.

Growth matters because it affects our living standards and quality of life; and it provides tax receipts for investment in essential services including police, schools and hospitals. Today living standards in the UK are 23% below those of the USA and the gap continues to widen.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a package of infrastructure projects to stimulate the nation’s economic growth by £78 billion . The plan includes 18 new towns on the Oxford to Cambridge Corridor. One academic study of the interwar years shows that house-building accounted for a third of the period’s economic growth , indicating that the Chancellor’s plans could be on the right track.

Battle lines already are being drawn over some of the growth projects, in particular the new runways and new towns. The global picture indicates intensifying competition from developing nations that are unencumbered by our practice of protracted enquiries and excessive regulation. These economies have better growth rates than the UK’s.

‘Smart’ regulation - necessary, proportionate and speedy - can contribute to creating the right environment for growth – and is vital to protect the environment, safety and health; and also businesses. Similarly, ‘smart growth’ finds the sweet spot that delivers better social, environmental and economic outcomes. The proposals announced by the Chancellor have the potential to do this.

We’re hopeful that AI, with its ability to assess a large amount of complex data and information, will reduce the length and sometimes the subjectivity of regulatory processes, thereby accelerating growth potential and enabling the UK to compete internationally.

High Streets and Healthy Places

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 15:50:07 GMT

Wellness at the heart of planning and design

Through social media we are more connected and have more opportunity than ever before, but we are also less happy, unwell and more isolated. Despite economic growth, wealth creation and medical advances, for the first time in recorded history Britons’ life expectancy is declining.

In parallel, the high street continues to struggle.

The causes of the high street’s challenges are complex and attributable to a number of factors. Economic uncertainty, the shift to on-line rather than traditional bricks and mortar, the attractiveness of the out of town, purpose-built retail, leisure, entertainment and food and beverage offer, consumers increasing preferring to spend their disposable income on experiences rather than possessions, western economies reaching ‘peak stuff’, formulaic high streets and tired, uncomfortable and uninspiring public realm, poor transport links and inflexible planning regulations, can all contribute in varying degrees to each high street’s challenges.

The ‘High Street’ origins is in being the most important street in a town: a place of higher importance than other streets. Massive migration to jobs in urban areas during the Industrial Revolution lead to a decline in families growing food, causing the need to buy food at markets, which evolved into shops and the concept of a high street of shops.

The suffrage movement provided a new market of independent women who wanted respectable places to visit and meet on their own. Between the 1870s and the Edwardian era further evolution of the high street lead to a better quality offer of department stores and tea shops. Post second world prosperity and globalisation have contributed to decades of evolutionary success of the high street.

How can we re-establish the high street as the most important place in each town? Could delivering well-being for individuals, connected communities and as a planet drive the resurgence of some of our high streets? Is the High Street an opportunity to be the place of healthy lifestyles - to be with other people, to be active and consume sustainably and healthily? The NHS and leading fitness providers think so but they are concerned that local planning regulations are making it much easier to provide take-away food shops than it is to provide access to healthy lifestyles.

By locating a fitness centre in the high street, a new market of regular and frequent visitors could be created. If the offer is right, these will also spend money in local cafes and shops. In the right locations, it also creates new early morning and evening markets and brings the additional benefit of activity which can reduce the incidence of anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Obesogenic environments can be made better with extensive and attractive walking and cycling routes, places and key destinations, including the local high street. High streets can be revived as destinations if they are designed to support more dwell time and activities that engage people. The fitness centre alone might not be suitable or the panacea for every high street but as part of a health and well-being-focused strategy, allowing the opportunity to innovate the high street with experiences and activities complementary to traditional retail could make a difference to both the economic performance of some high streets and the health and well-being of local people.

Mansion Blocks to Solve the Housing Crisis?

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 08:41:27 GMT

Our cities seem more challenged than ever before.

Insufficient and Inadequate access to green spaces, the housing shortage, declining high streets, loneliness, declining physical and mental health, loss of community and low levels of accessibility all seem entrenched issues.

New research ( here ) reveals that three-quarters of children would like to spend more time in nature. If only more places could be more like Paris, Amsterdam or even the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), with its historic green squares, tree-lined streets, vibrant high streets - not least of all The King’s Road - and elegant mansion blocks?

Potentially more places could be.

Sustainable and healthy places in which shops, services and key amenities can be accessed by no more than a short walk or short cycle ride, could also be realised.

The go-to housing solutions for cities, driven by viability studies and housing targets, have been tall buildings, while on cities’ fringes, seeking to build low-density estates on greenfield sites.

There is a third way.

RBKC has London’s highest number of dwellings per hectare (71, while the London-wide average 22.5 per hectare and 46 per hectare for inner London boroughs) yet it remains one of the most sought-after locations to live. The secret behind the data is Kensington and Chelsea’s elegant mansion blocks .

Mainly constructed in the late Victorian and Edwardian era as housing for the elite and as a solution to the rapid growth in London’s population, the mansion block could enjoy a renaissance as a solution to cities’ 21st Century challenges.

The mansion block not only provides a high-density housing solution but also substantial local markets for shops, restaurants, pubs and services. Mansion blocks deliver proximity and walkability , the two measures of sustainable places. Their density and design also frees up urban land for much needed dwell spaces, parklets, play spaces and squares.

Cambridge University once told us that the secret of their large number of Nobel prize winners is the number of pubs in the city centre that ensure that experts from many different disciplines meet and exchange ideas. It seems the benefits of designing connected communities is untold. More mansion blocks could be the key to unlocking this potential.

Social Impact at the Heart of Placemaking

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 22:36:18 GMT

Social value is rising towards the top of the agenda within the property and built environment industries. While social value is getting the attention it rightly deserves, is there a risk that it becomes the latest bandwagon and a box-ticking exercise?

Within our industry, are we becoming too focused on measuring rather than delivering more social impact?

From Placemaking London’s experience, working with a range of stakeholders, we believe that there is more social value out there to be realised. There is potential to maximise social value for local communities by thinking, planning and delivering better places.

Social impact can be amplified through simple design changes to new developments and public realm projects. These changes are not at an additional cost, can add commercial value and deliver much more social value for communities.

Looking beyond measuring and quantifying social value, its delivery can, and must, become an essential component in the planning, place-shaping and design processes to fulfil the potential of places for communities. Not least of all, design reviews need to look at new proposals in terms of the social value they can add and make recommendations to help the designer and developer or scheme promoter.

Let’s keep social value at the top of the agenda. Let’s think about it throughout the life cycle of a project, but we must not let the numbers distract us from delivering the best possible lived experiences and outcomes for local communities.

Miranda Kimball is an Associate Director with Placemaking London and co-developed its PLUSSSIV approach to delivering social value, which can be seen here: https://www.placemaking.london/social-impact-places

What is it that defines London as a ‘World Class’ city?

daniel.johnson1967@live.com (Daniel Johnson) — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 09:45:34 GMT

Standing on the roof of the Coliseum with its Chief Executive and the CEO of one of the world’s most successful Business Improvement Districts, we discussed what drives London’s global success.

The term ‘world-class’ is often used in placemaking but rarely defined. Working with my client, The Heart of London Business Alliance, we wanted to understand what prope ls the area’s global successes today and how to sustain high performance into the long term, in particular in a crowded and competitive placemaking and destination market.

A number of indices rank and measure the attractiveness of cities, as places to live, visit, work, study and invest. London, in the most frequently referred to indices of cities, is ranked highly as a world-class city, often in first or second place.

The Knight Frank Wealth Report uses three criteria: proportion of wealthy residents, scale of property investment and lifestyle: the latter includes number of high quality universities, the number of five star hotels and personal safety and security. The Global City Competitiveness Index uses eight criteria, populated from over thirty data sets, while the Global Power City Index (GPCI) measures cities by six functions (which are further broken down into 70 indicators). The Global Cities Report, which ranks London second place, behind New York, uses 27 metrics in five categories.

Reviewing the indexes revealed that London’s success and world-city status is attributable to a number of factors, in particular: strong economic performance, high quality universities and human capital (professional and knowledge workers), stable political and legal institutions, transport infrastructure enabling good connectivity and a unique breadth of high quality cultural activities and offers.

The latter, London’s cultural experience, which has developed and evolved over centuries, is the capital’s unrivalled asset. Importantly in an age in which people are prioritising spending of their disposable income on experiences, rather than purchasing goods, cultural experiences have become even more important factors in the success of a place.

The Heart of London area, comprising of Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly and St James’s, is economically, culturally and emotively a significant part of London’s stature as a ‘world-class’ city. It contributes to London’s overall status as a ‘world-class’ city because of its world famous places (St James, Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square) and world-renown attractions, including The Ritz, The Royal Academy, dozens of independent galleries, Fortnum and Mason, English National Opera and West End Theatres.

The Heart of London’s 39 hectare area is only six percent of the wider West End and a small part of the wider London as a place to visit, work and invest. Its contribution to London, however, as a ‘world-class’ destination is significant, specifically its unrivalled historic, cultural, arts, entertainment and architectural assets. It contributes to attracting visitors, therefore consumption and spending, and investment to London and the wider United Kingdom, which benefits the whole UK economy in terms of wealth and jobs. The importance of this to placemakers is it demonstrates that the pull effect of culture outweighs the cost of investing in cultural assets as part of a placemaking strategy.

Facts don't always persuade: transport behaviour change and public perception

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 09:41:39 GMT

The government recently announced a stretching target to cut emissions by 68% by the end of 2030. Targets are critical to focus the mind, but delivery of carbon reduction projects is key to success.

Transport is now the single largest source of carbon emissions in the UK. By investing in and encouraging more cycling we can reduce carbon, work towards a people centre d city and improve health, safety and air quality for all.

Implementing modal shift is not easy but is essential if we are to migrate to a zero carbon economy. Take for example the pop-up cycling schemes that have been introduced during these Covid 19 times, funded by the Government’s Active Travel Fund. Ten schemes have already been removed after short trials.

One scheme on Kensington High Street was in operation for around 8 weeks. During this time, views on the new cycle route became polarised. Cycling tripled while the lane was in place but opponents argued that it “caused” congestion.

A factor in the strong views against the scheme could be that the lockdown and its negative economic impacts are affecting people's feelings about anything they perceive to be imposed upon them. People feel better about what is happening if they feel they have a choice and a say.

We believe in finding engaging ways to use data and evidence to inform the public and decision-makers. Perceptions can be misleading: whilst queuing in a car, drivers could be forgiven for feeling frustrated by what they perceive to be an adjacent unused cycle lane. But their snapshot is likely mistaken as the data shows that cycle lanes are more popular and more efficient at carrying volumes of people than private vehicles.

Public opinion is critical for the success of high quality cycle routes. During Covid-19 quick decisions have had to be made, with imperfect information in an unprecedented crisis. As we gradually emerge from the pandemic in 2021, there is the opportunity to think, plan and deliver in collaborative, considered and evidence-led ways. This is crucial for the transition to a zero carbon economy.

A Green Recovery Plan

daniel.johnson1967@live.com (Daniel Johnson) — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 08:59:42 GMT

What does a Covid-19 recovery look like? How can it also address the Climate Crisis and deliver the better world we need and crave?

According to the IMF and leading economists, the social and economic impacts of the Covid- 19 pandemic are as deep as those of the Great Depression of the 1930s. While i n the midst of this global pandemic, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports is ten times more deadly than Swine Flu, families and policy-makers have had the opportunity to observe and reflect on the unexpected positive consequences .

The pre-Covid-19 issues of pace of life, consumption and well-being were highlighted in the Queen’s address to the nation on 5th April. London’s and other city’s air quality is now distinctly Alpine, carbon emissions are falling, cities are quieter places, traffic has fallen to levels last experienced in 1955 and wildlife is returning to urban areas. The consequences that we are witnessing during these extraordinary times have contributed to a widespread reflection over whether economies should return to pre-Covid-19 patterns of unsustainable, unhealthy and often unaffordable levels of consumption.

Both economists and scientists warn that carbon emissions caused by economic activity threaten our very existence. The declaration of a Climate Emergency by governments and Greta Thunberg’s plea that we must act as if ‘our house is on fire’ had begun to prompt meaningful plans to decarbonise economies, before the Covid-19 crisis.

Our house is not only on fire - Covid-19 has also blown the house down. This could be our opportunity to rebuild our home, better than before, rather than in the same, frustratingly inadequate way it was, with a decarbonisation-focused national recovery plan and a National Infrastructure Plan.

Britain has a strong tradition of public investment to improve public health and kick start recovery. In 1856, The Metropolitan Board of Works was created to build a new sewerage system for London to address public health challenges, specifically cholera. As well as a network of sewers for the capital, the Chief Engineer Bazalgette, reclaimed land from the Thames to create the Embankment, a new road, a promenade and tunnelling for train services (London Underground’s Circle and District lines).

The NHS was created on 5th July 1948 as part of popular sentiment and hope to build a better world and avoid repeatin g the horrors of the Second World War and deprivation of the 1930s. The post-war vision built a health service which today is at the frontline, protecting us from the Coronavirus crisis. The immediate post-war era has parallels with today, when a global crisis affects all our lives and restrictions and sacrifices have to be made, which gives birth to a collective desire to create a better world in the aftermath.

Britain was also a participant in the successful 1948 to 1952 Marshall Plan, which provided US financial aid to restore Europe’s economies. Today’s opportunity is to apply the same principles by using fiscal incentives and an investment stimulus package targeted specifically at industry sectors that can reduce, rather than continue to cause, environmental damage.

Scottish Power had already published in 2019 a £286 billion proposal for transforming how energy could be produced, buildings heated by heat pumps and vehicles supplied with electric power, to de-carbonise the UK economy. Scottish Power estimates this would also create 115,000 new jobs.

In March 2020, just as the UK was entering lock-down, the government published a ambitious scoping document for a future six-point plan to decarbonise the transport sector. This could now play a key role in a wider Green Recovery Plan.

Targeted support for businesses such as Gridserve, which harness solar energy to generate power for electric vehicle charging points and public investment to buy buses for every town and city from UK electric bus manufacturers, could accelerate both de-carbonisation and economic recovery from the Covid-19 downturn. Following the example set by other countries during the Cocid-19 crisis, UK towns and cities could permanently lock in traffic- free routes, creating clean air and safer places and networks for cyclists and pedestrians.

In addition, currently aspirational programmes, such the Northern Forest, which aims to create woodland from Liverpool to Hull with 50 million new trees, could become a national priority and fully delivered within several years rather than decades.

The tax receipts from vibrant businesses, new jobs and discretionary income trickling through the economy, can over time offset the initial investment costs to the public purse. Moreover, by averting the next crisis, the Climate Emergency, another eye-watering Treasury under-writing the costs of the emergency response, the economy and jobs, will not be necessary.