Trellick & Edenham Community Plan

Duration: January–December 2023

Research by: The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (UCL)

Principal investigator: Pablo Sendra, Professor of Urban Design and Public Participation

Researchers: Skye Langmuir and Laura Bucero Descalzo (UCL)

Community partner: Trellick Tower Residents’ Association (TTRA)

Community coordinators & researchers: Keith Benton (Chair, Trellick Tower Residents’ Association), Toby Laurent Belson (coordination, photography, graphic design, newsletter outreach), Mary Tover (photography), Nadine Donaldson (outreach) and Jessica Jones (workshop facilitation)

The Trellick and Edenham Community Plan is the result of the research project ‘Develop Trellick? Towards a community-led regeneration of Trellick and Cheltenham Estate’.

Funded by London Museum, the project emerged after the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea withdrew a planning application in December 2021 to build housing on the van car park in front of Trellick Tower, a Grade II listed tower block on the Cheltenham Estate in Kensal Town, London. This decision followed the residents’ opposition to the scheme. The borough council committed to engage with the residents to see what kind of development they’d want instead.

The residents and TTRA decided to develop a community vision to present to the council and guide future planning decisions. As the research team explains, “A community vision is not a detailed plan, but a flexible document with a set of co-produced principles and ideas that can guide future developments in the estate.”

The project used a Participatory Action Research approach, treating residents as full partners and co-creators of the research. Three residents were hired as community-based researchers, and a community steering committee guided the project’s direction.

Four co-design workshops addressed three core topics:

• open and community spaces
• arts and culture
• homes, care and health

The workshops also examined how interventions would affect the estate’s heritage and restoration of the Trellick Tower plinth.

Residents identified that they valued the estate’s proximity to local cafes, restaurants and shops; quality housing (despite maintenance concerns); and the iconic Trellick Tower as a landmark. Many long-term residents wanted to reinstate the care home that previously existed.

The resulting proposals from these workshops identified key priorities such as social rent homes, family-sized units, low- to medium-rise buildings (maximum six storeys), and mixed developments combining housing with assisted living. This would be combined with health and well-being facilities.

For open and community spaces, the plan calls for better maintenance of existing areas, improved accessibility and new intergenerational spaces.

The community also called to include artists’ studios (adapting and reusing the former garages in the plinth of Trellick Tower), a local history museum, sports facilities, affordable businesses and improved green spaces. They also proposed establishing a community-owned renewable energy network.