For forty years, we have helped shape the world around us for the better.

The West End Project is Camden Council’s £35 million scheme to deliver exciting improvements to central London’s public realm. One of the most significant transformations is the creation of new and regenerated public and green spaces. This includes Alfred Place, a radical project that will transform a road into a new public park, a green oasis lined with wildflowers and places for play.

London’s Boundary Estate in Shoreditch is Europe’s first social housing estate. Dating back to 1890, its handsome streets fan out from a central garden and bandstand, designed to promote social cohesion – a radical move at a time when the city was struggling with spatial constraints. However, the gardens had fallen into a steep decline and until recently were little used. LDA Design worked with the community to breathe new life into the space, adding seating and carefully restoring the ‘At Risk’ bandstand. An award winner, this project demonstrates how local groups can successfully lobby for improvements to help shape where they live for the better.

Battersea Power Station is one of London’s true architectural icons. After many false starts, redevelopment of the site into a new central London neighbourhood is well underway. LDA Design is leading on all the external spaces, creating streets, squares, numerous roof gardens including London’s longest, a new six-acre public park and over 400 metres of waterfront public realm. The emphasis is on high quality design. This is a project of firsts, the mantra of ‘don’t do ordinary’ rings true from the overall design of large new buildings to the smallest detail, reflecting the site’s industrial heritage.

Victorian gem, Brompton Cemetery, the resting place of Suffragette Emeline Pankhurst, is one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ garden cemeteries. Built to ease the city’s overcrowded graveyards, it provides much-needed urban public green space. Today, the Park and Garden contain more than 35 Grade II and II* listed buildings and monuments, together with 35,000 gravestones, 60 species of tree and abundant wildlife. It is the only cemetery in the country owned by the Crown and managed by The Royal Parks on behalf of the nation. A £6.2 million restoration, with a masterplan by LDA Design, has brought the cemetery into the 21st century. New editions include a café and visitor centre.

With its generous terraces, the Brunswick Centre is one of London’s most distinctive 1960s mixed-used developments. Close by is the lovely Brunswick Square Gardens. What separates these two landmarks is a busy, pedestrian unfriendly, land-hungry roundabout. Camden Council commissioned LDA Design to reconfigure the space, making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Solutions include a dedicated cycle route and stronger connections to the Brunswick Centre.

The idea for Burgess Park came out of the 1943 Abercrombie Plan. Clear an area damaged by heavy bombing, create a park and move the displaced population to the new high-rise Aylesbury Estate. The park was built out, yet without a clear guiding plan. The result was a park that was mature but lacking in structure. With dead ends, fears over safety grew. LDA Design’s competition-winning vision has created a safe, popular space with open sightlines and 3.5km of new footpaths. The central lake is now a feature. It has Southwark’s first dedicated BBQ space.

Pines and grasses evocative of Ireland’s stunning Wicklow Mountains bring to life new gardens, terraces and shared spaces in Capital Dock, Dublin’s latest waterfront development. Part of Dublin’s emerging South Docklands business hub, Capital Dock is a welcoming, mixed-used development with 190 high-quality new apartments. Framed by panoramic views of the River Liffey and Grand Canal, the site features a new waterfront park and quay square by LDA Design.

Peterborough Cathedral is one of the UK’s finest examples of 12th century architecture. But the square over which it proudly stands had long been under-serving the city. An LDA Design-led revamp has made the piazza the heart of the city once again, changing perceptions, improving footfall and boosting local businesses. Cathedral Square is now a great place to grab a coffee – children love the choreographed jets too.

Straddling the River Liffey, Dublin’s docklands have been transformed into a new piece of city: a great place to live with inviting parks and views that stretch out, and a modern, waterfront setting in which to do business. Time here feels well spent. City Block 3 (CB3) is the last piece of the jigsaw in the transformation of North Dublin Docklands. At its heart, we will create a new park inspired by the street layout of 18th century Dublin.

Berkeley Group’s St William is unlocking some of the UK’s most complex brownfield sites, reconnecting dozens of gasworks – cut off decades – with the surrounding community, and transforming them into beautiful places to live. LDA Design developed ‘first life’ principles to shape the masterplan for Clarendon: encouraging sociability, and connecting people to nature and to place. We set out to make Clarendon feel special, to make it easy to live an active, neighbourly life here. Our approach rested on the quality of the shared spaces, not just the quantity. Clarendon Community Park will provide a welcome retreat in the hard and paved environment of north London’s Wood Green.

Stoke Newington favourite, Clissold Park is a cherished 55-acre London green space. A public park since 1887, it is home to a grade II listed villa built for 18th century philanthropist Jonathan Hoare. A major restoration has lifted the Park to a new level, ensuring that it is relevant to a diverse audience. Features include a redesigned pleasure ground, new skate park and a destination play area. A man-made watercourse, originally designed to supply water into London, has been reinstated. Clissold is now central to the lives of all those that live close by, and a destination for those further afield.

Since opening, more than 18 million people have visited England’s Eden Project, adding £1.7 billion to the local economy. This world-famous eco-centre is now expanding overseas. LDA Design is working on the first of these ventures – a new ecological park near Qingdao in China. Water sets the framework for Qingdao, and we are creating wetlands, freshwater and salt lakes, swales, reed beds, rain gardens and beaches. Qingdao will be a place of delight. Experiences here will be made richer with the understanding of how we can better manage this scarce resource.

London’s Mayor wants to encourage more people to walk, cycle and use public transport. To this end, Camden Council appointed LDA Design to develop a vision that would turn a busy section of the Euston Road, running in front of the transformed King’s Cross Station, into a world-class gateway. The brief also included a revamp for some of the key connecting streets. We set out how Euston Road could become a grand boulevard: a safer, cleaner, more enjoyable place to be for pedestrians and cyclists.

A walk around Forty Hall feels a long way from London. This handsome Jacobean manor house in Enfield is now a free museum and a popular local destination. It is also a rare example of a pristine 18th century landscape, with a large ornamental lake, formal and informal gardens, as well as medieval fishing ponds. With Heritage Lottery funding, Enfield Council and LDA Design set about securing its future through careful restoration, returning to a ‘Landscape of Plenty’ made more accessible and relevant.

In its heyday Gloucester Docks was a major gateway to the industrialised Midlands and beyond. A major regeneration has turned it into a popular destination, one that is reported to rival Gloucester Cathedral as the city’s main draw. Visitors can now wander around a remarkably complete example of a Victorian port lined with handsome warehouses and replete with new bars and cafés, bespoke seating and new public art.

Here East is an award-winning new digital quarter and makers yard, which builds on the creative heritage of Hackney Wick. Situated in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Here East reuses London 2012’s Media Centres. By taking temporary buildings and spaces and giving them fresh purpose, it serves as a bold statement of sustainable design and of the commitment to deliver on the post-Games legacy. Responding to the scale of the site’s monumental architecture, LDA Design visualised the outdoor spaces to reflect the area’s industrial aesthetic, creating a flexible canvas for socialising and events or a great place to have lunch.

Central London’s Holborn is set to change rapidly with the arrival of HS2 into Farringdon bringing a new wave of investment. Camden Council wants to tackle some of the key issues at play in the neighbourhood, including the four-lane gyratory system that cuts through it. LDA Design’s proposals for the 38-acre area, which includes Holborn Tube and the British Museum, will re-balance movement and place, creating safer, more attractive, easier-to-navigate streets for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as new green infrastructure to improve air quality. Research revealed there are only seven public seats in Holborn, we plan for this to change.

Transformation of one of Bristol’s most iconic streets is underway following a successful campaign for pedestrianisation. LDA Design and local traders have worked together to make 17th century King Street traffic-free along its entire length, creating a temporary new open space and place to socialise in the heart of the city. This move allows for more outside seating for bars and cafés, boosting business recovery following the C-19 pandemic. Pedestrianising the street also provides a large flexible new space outside the Bristol Old Vic theatre for outdoor performances.

Situated at the boundary of three boroughs – Camden, Islington and The City – the hugely diverse space between King’s Cross and Farringdon is not a single distinctive neighbourhood. This is likely to change as the Royal Mail Sorting Office at Mount Pleasant makes way for new homes and streets. Capitalising on this opportunity, Camden Council commissioned LDA Design to develop proposals to transform the public realm. Our work will provide safer, more attractive and less cluttered streets, new opportunities for socialising, improved biodiversity and the framework for healthier lifestyles.

New infrastructure projects are often missed for better place-making. But it doesn’t have to be this way. LDA Design’s award-winning flood defence scheme in Littlehampton demonstrates how a need for enhanced infrastructure can create great places for people. The scheme, which strengthens defences along the east bank of the River Arun, is deliberately modest. It features welcoming promenades at differing levels, terraced seating and lovely coastal planting. The transformed seafront not only better protects the people of Littlehampton but also connects the town to a much-improved waterfront.

A model for ambitious development, the University of Cambridge’s multi-award-winning North West Cambridge is a vibrant new district providing 3,000 new homes and 100,000sqm of space for pioneering research. It is also the UK’s most sustainable large-scale development, with energy-efficient homes and buildings. The country’s largest rainwater recycling scheme utilises swales and feeds a beautiful lagoon; woodland ridges serve as a buffer to the adjacent M11. LDA Design is working with contractors, Skanska, to ensure the public realm gives North West Cambridge a strong sense of place, integrating local rural characteristics such as hedgerows and heritage trees with a fine urban grain inspired by the city of Cambridge’s historic centre.

Stand on the highest mound of Ealing’s Northala Fields on a sunny day and you will have the most spectacular view across London, with the London Eye in clear sight. Northala Fields is an award-winning park adjacent to the A40. It is instantly recognisable from its four conical-shaped hills, like ancient burial mounds, made from tonnes of construction rubble and spoil. This waste would have headed to landfill at great cost to the environment. Instead, working with Ealing Council, LDA Design used the waste to make Northala a destination park for local people to enjoy.

A new development in The Oval is set to open up an industrial site closed off to the public for 150 years to create 700-plus much-needed new homes. It is key to a wider regeneration masterplan. LDA Design will ensure lively everyday spaces, inspired by local heritage, bring the site to life. Each area has its own distinctive character, with well-chosen materials and planting creating cohesion. These spaces can scale up to accommodate community events from farmers’ markets to seasonal celebrations. The site’s iconic listed No1 Gasholder, which frames the world-famous Oval Cricket Ground, will be taken down and rebuilt with a high-quality apartment block within its frame.

The University of Portsmouth’s new multi-million pound sports facility, with public realm by LDA Design, is the first major phase in ambitious plans by the University to reshape its central campus, strengthening connections to the city and creating a supportive environment for students that promotes better health and wellbeing. Ravelin Park is one of Portsmouth’s most treasured green spaces, and LDA Design is working with architects FaulknerBrowns to embed the sports complex in its stunning Park setting with an inviting new plaza, urban orchard and new pathways.

Scarborough is the UK’s first resort and one of its most attractive. Despite this, it has long suffered from underinvestment. The town’s historic harbour was identified as a priority for regeneration. LDA Design negotiated between often polarised positions to produce a radical scheme that received unanimous approval, de-bunking the idea of using off-the-shelf Victorian pastiche street components in favour of bespoke elements that were ‘uniquely Scarborough’. Bold steps included removing the security fencing around the quay to open it up to the public. Improvements have stimulated investment and boosted local trade, and played a major part in Scarborough winning the Most Enterprising Town in Britain accolade.

Science Gallery London is a new exhibition space at the foot of the Shard. A joint venture with King’s College London, it blends science and art for a younger audience. As part of the scheme, LDA Design took the College’s historic Georgian quadrangle, a car park since the 1960s, and transformed it into an elegant, contemporary public courtyard, a much-needed breathing space amidst the hustle and bustle of London Bridge. Our design champions reuse, with historic York stone, granite setts and kerb stones restored where possible. Historic detailing added project complexity.

Marsh Wall stands on the western edge of the Isle of Dogs, a tongue of reclaimed land made into an island by the West India Dock Company. Once the warehouse of the world, and now within the shadow of Canary Wharf, it is fast becoming one of London’s most exciting new places to live. LDA Design has shaped the shared space for this 600-home development, creating a place where a new community can take root quickly and where people feel an easy sense of belonging. Spaces are designed to bring people into contact with nature as an everyday part of their lives.

Station Hill is a £750 million, mixed-use development, spanning 6.5 acres located at the gateway between Reading Station and the main town centre. It is also one of the largest regeneration projects currently underway in the South East. Station Hill will be so much more than a desire line to pass through at pace. Our aim is to create a place where people want to linger, with exceptional public realm and a myriad places to enjoy the first coffee of the day through to the perfect spot for a cooling post-work drink as the sun goes down.

The Strand in Aldwych is one of London’s most famous streets. Gateway to the capital’s Theatreland, the area is home to Somerset House, King’s College London, LSE and St Mary le Strand Church, as well as hotels, theatres and the Courtauld Institute of Art. It is also a notorious bottleneck for traffic, with poor quality public spaces. LDA Design and Westminster City Council have developed ambitious plans to transform StrandAldwych into a world-class cultural and learning quarter. The proposals remove traffic from a 200-metre stretch to create lively new public realm said to rival Trafalgar Square. Key design moves will help to resolve the challenges of congestion, pollution and safety.

Stratford Waterfront represents the largest cultural investment in the capital since the Festival of Britain and the South Bank, opening up world-class arts and education to a younger audience. Big names heading there include the BBC, V&A, London College of Fashion and Sadler’s Wells. LDA Design is creating a dynamic common ground that will support a fresh curated programme of activity, drawing crowds to east London. The potential for cultural exchange is exciting.

London’s private rental sector is dominated by small-scale landlords but that’s changing as developers push ahead with large-scale build-to-rent schemes. One of the biggest will transform the former Elizabeth Arden, Art Deco perfume factory in North Acton, creating 500 new homes. It’s no surprise that tenants are happier and stay longer if they know at least one neighbour. LDA Design is working to ensure the vibrant shared spaces work hard for new residents with sociable seating, The Yard has space for street food and there will be community food growing too.

The Royal Parks cares for eight of London’s most spectacular and significant green spaces, covering over 5,000 acres of historic parkland. LDA Design’s relationship with The Royal Parks spans decades, and is award winning. Together, we have restored historic landscapes based on archaeological investigations and furthered sensitive designs that appeal to new audiences, within Grade I registered landscapes. Our work includes the redesign of North Flower Walk in Kensington Gardens and we have reversed the decline of much-loved urban oasis, Brompton Cemetery.

Victoria Park is one of London’s oldest and most-loved green spaces, originally designed to serve the East End working class. Funding cuts had weakened its appeal, infrastructure was failing, and original features were at risk. Tower Hamlets Council commissioned LDA Design to prepare a masterplan and oversee its implementation. We combined a sensitivity to the Park’s heritage with a highly creative approach to new features and spaces. The project included the restoration of lakes, bridges and a recreated pagoda. The challenge was to keep all areas of the park accessible to the public through the busy summer while the regeneration took place. Now more than 12 million visit every year.

As the home of our national game Wembley occupies a unique place in the nation’s heart, but it hasn’t always been a great place to live. That’s changing fast as developer Quintain, with support from LDA Design, sets about creating a vibrant, self-sustaining north-west London community with a new seven-acre park, gardens with lazy lawns, and an award-winning site-wide tree planting strategy. That strategy is not alone. Wembley’s Alto Apartments scooped Property Week’s RESI Development of the Year. The spirit of landscape genius Humphry Repton, the original designer behind Wembley Park, casts light over the new designs.

The pressure on central London’s public realm is intense and growing ever more so. Major improvements need to be made to tackle air pollution and to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Camden Council has a remarkable ambition to create a hectare of new or reimagined public space in one of the busiest, most heavily contested parts of London. The council commissioned LDA Design to develop plans that shift the balance from cars to people, making streets cleaner, greener and safer, and improving connections to key attractions. At Princes Circus a section of Shaftesbury Avenue will make way for a lively public square. Alfred Place will become the first new park in this area in 25 years. Cherished park, Whitfield Gardens will be transformed for the local community.

Hull’s fortunes rested on the sea, with shipping and fishing its main industries. Philip Larkin said of Hull, ‘It’s in the middle of the lonely country, and beyond the lonely country there is only sea.” The decline in both hit the the city hard. Hull’s response has been ambitious, with housing and cultural renewal top of the agenda. As part of this wave of regeneration, LDA Design crafted a development framework for Anlaby Road. One of our first moves was to recast West Park, reversing decades of lack of investment with a welcoming new gateway into the park.

Westferry Printworks, once Europe’s largest printing plant, is the site of an ambitious new neighbourhood on the Isle of Dogs. The proposal establishes new connections to the waterfront through a long since cut-off private site. More than half of Westferry is dedicated to open space. A south-facing promenade lined with cafés and shops will provide a vibrant dockside experience. LDA Design looked at how a range of activities could be accommodated to connect people to place. There will be two new parks, playful streets, courtyards, waterside and woodland walks, play areas, plus a space for local food growing.

Home to one of the best universities in the world, Oxford is also a vibrant city of industry, commerce and culture. Over the last few decades, however, a combination of the medieval street layout, the city’s historic buildings and diverse land ownership have hampered the evolution of a modern retail offer. Land Securities’ Westgate rings the changes. The design offers rooftop dining that capitalises on views of the world famous ‘dreaming spires’. LDA Design developed competition-winning proposals to create a ‘Kitchen Quad’, dotted with aromatic herbs, ornamental vegetables and fruit trees, plus ‘crinkle-crankle’ seats. The rooftop has already proved to be one of Oxford’s most popular new spots, from day to night.

Whitfield Gardens is a much-loved community space off Tottenham Court Road in central London. As it stands, the Gardens are a magnet for anti-social behaviour. LDA Design, in partnership with Camden Council, hopes to revive this cherished green space, opening up views, removing hidden nooks and providing a safe and attractive place for residents, workers and visitors. Communal dining, rainwater gardens and an events area will define the space. The Fitzrovia Mural will also be restored. Whitfield Gardens is part of the council’s ambitious £35 million West End Projects.