Mabley Green involves the creation of a significant new public park in Hackney, East London located on the site of the former WW1 National Projectile Factory. The concept, design and construction of Mabley Green involved extensive input from numerous stakeholders and provided many positive social and environmental outcomes for the local community.
Client and Contract Period
London Borough of Hackney
2013 – 2017
Project Objectives
Create a new public park, with sports facilities, community food growing areas, inclusive play, with a strong ‘sense of place’.
A general approach to minimise maintenance costs
To increase site biodiversity
To safeguard the longevity of the historic avenue
Reduce the impact of the nearby A12 road corridor
To minimise the amount of waste and contaminated material going to landfill
To generate revenue to aid the economic sustainability of the park.
Issues Challenges and Outcomes
A key challenge was the ground conditions, with an extensive amount of contaminated material on site and a large degraded redgra pitch. The design approach sought to work creatively with the site conditions, where earthworks, the creation of play areas and re-use of the redgra pitch for biodiversity improvements meant that no waste material ended up in landfill. Earthworks provided the context for the climbing rock, named as ‘Mabley boulder’.
An open mosaic habitat was created optimising the nutrient poor mineral substrate of the former pitch, creating the right conditions for extensive wildflower meadows and biodiversity enhancements.
The scheme resulted in many positive social outcomes for the local community with additional revenue generation from a new 3G pitch. The project demonstrated successful partnership working with The London Orchard Project, The London Wildlife Trust, Greenwich Leisure Ltd, Veolia, Football Foundation and Hackney Environmental Network.
Services
- Landscape design from concept to implementation
- Contract administration
- Stakeholder consultation
