Athlone Gardens co-designed masterplan brief

About the brief

This is the brief given to designers for the co-design of Athlone Gardens. Read about our co-designed masterplan for Athlone Gardens and how you can get involved. 

Athlone Gardens, North Kensington, London, W10 5RP Masterplanning by Co-Design: Information Given to Designers

Above: current facilities at Athlone Gardens. The entire park is fenced.

Consultation to date

Informal consultation has taken place with over 100 local residents and community representatives from January to June 2024. Many residents are not happy that mature trees have been removed from the estate during the construction of new homes, and feel there is insufficient public open space within the neighbourhood for the size of population. Many of the new homes are flats and do not have access to their own gardens. The children’s playground and dog exercise areas are very well used, as are the benches and picnic tables. 

A number of park users are happy with children’s playground, but not happy with the poor drainage of the park, especially the dog exercise area. 

Most common requests for improvement are; more trees, seats and picnic tables, especially shaded from sun and rain. There were also a number of requests for an improved dog exercise area, facilities for ball games (football, basketball and tennis), extra planting and areas with shade, more activities for teenagers, a café and public toilets. A full breakdown of consultation feedback is provided as an attached document. 

Some residents have fond memories of the old shelter that was within the ‘old’ Athlone Gardens, locally referred to as the ‘Witches Hat’.

‘Witches Hat’ shelter with seating in the ‘old’ Athlone Gardens (now demolished).

Further consultation, as part of the Co-Design process, will take place once the designer has been selected. The successful designer will inform the consultation process to ensure that designer and community work together in harmony. The cost of further consultation will be borne by Kensington & Chelsea Council.

It is essential that design teams have strong skills and experience in working collaboratively with communities, as this will very much be a Co-Design process.

Masterplan co-design

As mentioned above, this will be a co-design process and it is essential that design teams have strong skills and experience in working collaboratively with communities.

Initial informal consultation has taken place to find out how residents and some local groups feel about the current park, and their initial ideas for improvement. However, no decision has been made as to what the final park will look and feel like. It may be treated as a blank sheet of paper, or some of the current facilities could be retained. Mature trees currently within the park must be retained.

In terms of scale of works, a firm budget has not yet been agreed. The housing developer has committed to financial contributions via a planning agreement, and the council has agreed a provisional sum, however the final budget will be informed by feedback from the community and the final agreed design. Please assume an overall construction budget of £1.2 million at this stage.

Design essentials

You must retain the following existing park features within your design proposals:

• all mature trees

You must include the following features within your design proposals (from the informal consultation conducted to date, as attached):

• more trees, plants and wildflowers in the park
• more seating and shade from the sun and rain
• more activities for older children and teenagers, including an area for ball games
• an improved dog exercise area
• a small park building to include for toilets, café and shelter from sun and rain

You may include other features raised by residents during informal consultation (attached as a separate document). When including these features please clearly indicate your reasoning / the link to consultation feedback.

Features must be affordable within the £1.2 million indicative construction budget. Your score(s) at assessment will be reduced if your proposals are not assessed as being affordable.