Team led by top architect to cost and put finishing touches to plan for one of Europe’s largest housing estates.
Top-10 architect Broadway Malyan has been picked to finalise plans for the regeneration of one of the UK’s largest housing estates, a scheme estimated to be worth £175m.

The practice is to act as a development consultant for Hackney council on the Woodberry Down Estate, which has 2600 dwellings. It will be leading a team that will assess options for the 24 ha estate, which, when it was built between 1946 and 1970, was the largest housing estate in Europe.

The team will cost plans that have been developed by residents and Hackney council over the past year. It will also advise on the temporary relocation of residents if parts of the estate are demolished, and the selection of a private sector partner to help redevelop the estate. This would be done through a Community Land Trust, which would give residents a say in the allocation of regeneration funds.

The team, which has been appointed for a year, said it was also looking at creating a green “corridor” through the estate, linking it to other open spaces in north London.

Broadway Malyan’s team includes housing consultant HACAS Chapman Hendy, consulting engineer the Waterman Group, QS MacConvilles and solicitor Trowers & Hamlin.

Albert Golding, head of regeneration at Broadway Malyan, said the team planned to come up with one or two costed options for the estate next month. He said tenants were represented by a “solid and well-informed residents group, which is going to have a significant role in the regeneration programme.”

There is a solid residents group, which is going to have a significant role

Albert Golding, Broadway Malyan

A Hackney council regeneration spokesman said: “Parts of the estate are suffering from structural failure. There is substantial dilapidation, which means it does not offer a decent standard of housing and parts may be beyond repair.”

Hackney council received £22.5m from the government’s Single Regeneration Budget in 2000 to look at regeneration plans for the site and the Stamford Hill region. The council originally tendered for advisers for the scheme last May.

It is the biggest project won so far by Broadway Malyan’s newly established regeneration unit, set up last April. The unit is also working on a mixed-used masterplan for a site in east Brighton.

The Woodberry Down regeneration programme is one of many planned for run-down estates in London. Others are a £150m redevelopment of the Ferrier Estate in Greenwich and a £115m project for the Kender Triangle in Lewisham.