The masterplan for Meridian Water is about creating opportunities. Paying attention to what is already there, this major regeneration project envisions a quality environment for local people. The assets and threats driving the placemaking are the natural green and blue landscape of the Lee Valley Regional Park, traversing the site as canals, brooks, culverts, channels, and paths. Delivering jobs, educational facilities, culture, places to meet, play and eat with parks and recreational community areas is key for Meridian Water, an area currently disconnected and one of the most deprived in London.

Not one place, but many

Meridian Water is not one place, but many. A series of walkable micro-neighbourhoods connected by a green network and a vibrant main street providing many places to call home with their own flavour and identity. The overall objective of the London Borough of Enfield is to create 10,000 homes and 4,000 jobs with a target of open space ratio at 30%, distributed across the 80-hectare area.

Nature

Meridian Water has a distinct landscape character informed by the unique Lee Valley Regional Park with striking wild nature, waterways and industrial heritage. The interconnected, high-performance system providing health and microclimate benefits simultaneously serves programmatic, aesthetic and technical functions such as flood and wind mitigation and preventing overheating. Growing space, food production, trees and plants provide habitats alongside active roofs reinforcing to the ecosystem services.

Urban fabric

The urban grain of Meridian Water is rich and messy, with diversified places of various scales and densities, to achieve the vision of shaping a pleasant human experience. Animated streets are complemented by a finer mesh of spatial typologies such as yards, courts and mews inspired by the local industrial heritage. The 15-minute-city approach establishes 15 liveable micro-neighbourhoods providing easy access to daily life essentials, creating a highly connected environment that is inclusive and long-term adaptive.

Blue network

Existing waterways, generating an exceptional sense of place, should be celebrated. The existing canals, brooks, culverts and reservoirs are transformed and revitalised to provide a network of waterways integrated in the public realm of Meridian Water.

The Broad Band

An innovation district driven by meanwhile activities and programme. The Broad Band is a vibrant mixed-use zone with a blend of start-ups, incubators, accelerators and live-work opportunities. A fine urban grain with yards and passages, gritty, exciting and creating moments to be experienced and enjoyed.

Micro-neighbourhoods

The Green Loop connects a mix of vibrant micro-neighbourhoods, each with its distinct characteristics and identity, based on their locations within Meridian Water. A strategy to create diversity, a sense of belonging and many places to call home.

The Green Loop

A generous, active and healthy linear community park for everyone. With pocket parks, play, meeting places and public amenities, all connected and close to home as well as providing ecosystem services, the Green Loop is truly a park on your doorstep.

Society

Meridian Water is a place that serves the community, focusing on what a community needs to thrive. It sets out to be an urban environment improving health of a diverse population. The key strategy focuses on employment and creation of jobs, bringing forward opportunities for a range of entrepreneurial skills and experiences, offering education and training for human growth. A comfortable place for all with proximity to every-day amenities, culture, social infrastructure, work, friends, and local events.

Versatile places and local destinations

The masterplan vision derives from an analysis of people’s everyday use of public space, aiming to create an urban neighbourhood where quality of life improves over time. Its scale speaks to the human senses, and seeks to empower people’s movement, to catch their interests, help and support social interaction, and to create engagement with the surroundings. Through a granular and smaller-scale approach to development phases and masterplan zones, there is a high flexibility to adapt to the needs of the emerging community over time. Rather than providing a few large spaces, the public realm offers many places of various uses and characters, multi-purpose and pleasant, ranging from local to major destinations.

Design process

Kjellander Sjöberg was appointed Masterplan Spatial Lead by LBE in November 2019, and has since worked alongside a bespoke team with many voices; Periscope, Mae, Useful Projects, 5th Studio, Urban Symbiotics and Jacobs. The masterplan is in a conceptual development stage, leading up to consultation in AW 2021-22. The Council is taking control of the vision for Meridian Water and overseeing its’ delivery, securing a minimum of 40% affordable homes provision as well as high quality new jobs and educational facilities. In 2019 Enfield declared climate emergency, and Meridian Water is underpinned by an aspirational Environmental Sustainability Strategy for carbon neutrality and net zero growth, adopted in 2020.