Our Loughborough Junction blogger explores what the masterplan could mean for LJ’s future
By Daniel Mazliah
When crippling rent hikes started being handed out to long-time traders in Brixton Market, it got me thinking.
What can you do to stop positive moves to improve a place from descending into rampant gentrification? And once the genie is out of lamp is there anything you can do?
I recently met with two architects and urban designers with a passion for Loughborough Junction. For them, the answer is simple: put local people in the driving seat.
Loughborough Junction is also changing before our eyes.
David Hills and Tom Greenall, from local firm DSDHA, have been brought in by the council and community group LJAG to soak up what residents love and hate about LJ and turn it into something that can guide future development: a Masterplan.
It’s not been the usual ‘posters in the town hall’ approach to consultation. The pair opened up and illuminated a disused shop in the middle of the local estate. But how did they get people to come over?
“You’ve got to have music, loud music”, says David. “So we got a DJ in. The music started gently and then got louder and louder. There were people dancing on the square all day in sub-zero temperatures. It was fantastic.”
“Alongside this we introduced rickshaw rides. We thought instead of sitting teenagers in a room and just saying ‘what do you think of LJ’, we could take them out on rickshaws and ask them to lead us to what they think is good in LJ and start to record that so we could see their point of view?”
After more than three months of conversations with residents, DSDHA have started to put down a series of themes, and a plan is emerging.
It’s exciting stuff.
David and Tom are inspired by LJAG’s plans for the area’s railway bridges.
“The first thing is to take the seven bridges, and create this amazing lighting so that wherever you pass through LJ you think ‘bam’ here I am. It will create both local connections and improve safety and also give a sense of identity to the region”, says David.
The Masterplan will also outline how LJ’s many railway arches could become a series of business yards.
David says: “The other issue that came out time and again is places of work and keeping LJ a hybrid environment with variety like the successful street that has the Whirled Cinema, a boxing club, a church, start-up businesses and a car garage. That mix is incredibly rich.”
“(We will be) defining opportunities to create a series of yards within LJ to build on what’s already here. Each of these yards can keep its own characteristic, texture and characters. You then factor in investment, but investment led by what local people want”, adds Tom.
But the most eyebrow-raising part has to be Station Square.
“We learned where people feel most safe and most vulnerable. Local people feel safest and happiest in their homes or schools. But the heart of Loughborough Junction – the area that everyone identifies as the centre of their neighbourhood – is actually the place where people feel most unsafe and least want to be.”
If someone gave David a million pounds he would “buy those buildings which currently sit right next to the station which are up for sale. You would need £800,000. You remove those buildings and create public space and by doing that you create a magnet for investment.”
The Masterplan will be published at the end of March.
The pair stress that although there is funding in place for ‘quick wins’, the document is a picture of what LJ could be. It’s then over to us to make it happen.
We end up back on Station Square, a thrilling example of what this means.
If eight thousand people pledge £100 each we can buy the run-down building in front of the train station, knock it down and give Loughborough Junction a town square, a focal point to bring the community together. Who’s with me?
To find out more visit LJAG’s new website.
