Chelsea Waterfront

: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

Chelsea Waterfront is a new residential led neighbourhood located in Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

This project, consented in 2005, delivers 710 homes, some commercial use, retail space, a restaurant, leisure centre, nursery, and health facility. At its heart is the Lots Road PowerStation, created in 1904 to provide power to the London Underground. It is located at the heart of the Lots Road Village and to its South the Chelsea Harbor community. The Power Station and Chelsea Creek act as a barrier between these two neighbourhoods and the opportunity we saw was for a masterplan that re connected these areas. Opening the ground floor of the power station and connecting through it over Chelsea Creek using three new pedestrian bridges. Using high quality design, the masterplan makes the best of an important industrial asset and a part of the city that has been inaccessible for over 100 years. Over 50% of the site is given over to amenity uses, with a range of landscaped spaces from formal water gardens to more natural planting areas along the Creekside. On once disused brownfield land the public realm has been developed in close consultation with an ecologist using reed planting, micro fauna, wildflower mixes and native planting to create significant biodiversity across the site. It is an integrated, sustainable development using passive design combined with a sensitive approach to repair and retention of heritage and a full understanding of its wider social and economic impact.