News

Centre's analyst gives talk to planning students

Monday, 12 November 2018

On Monday and Wednesday our Research Analyst, Matt Ford, was at the Hilldrop Community Centre in Islington giving talks about our Community Plan for Holloway project to University College London (UCL) students on the Urban Design and City Planning Masters course.

The days were organised by Omar Sherif, one of the planners we have been working closely with as part of the project. He has coordinated a unit on the Holloway site at UCL. 

Up to 40 people attended each event and asked interesting questions about the site. The next step for the students will be to come up with plans for how the site can be used to meet local needs.

Matt's talk was based on the needs analysis of Islington he carried out in 2017. The key message was that despite its reputation, Islington is a very deprived borough with high levels of housing and other need. There are also high levels of inequality in the borough. Our community engagement exercise garnered 929 responses (!) and found that local people want genuinely affordable housing, public space, green space and community services built on the site. 

On 20 November we're holding a public meeting in Islington to discuss how much has been achieved since we launched Community Plan for Holloway two years ago. It's at the Williamson Street Community Centre, 76 Parkhurst Road, N7 0FF between 7.00PM and 8.30PM. It is open to everyone concerned about the future of the former Holloway Prison site.