Wealdstone Project

Combining public and civic spaces to promote values of community and inclusivity on the high street

A new town square for Wealdstone as a precursor to wider regeneration in the centre, delivered alongside the Council’s new £45m civic campus, and combined with an innovative participatory youth programme; Wealdstone Youth Workshop.

We Made That were commissioned to deliver a much-needed new public space in Wealdstone. The square doubled the existing public space in the town centre, and can be enlivened by activity, people and furniture. The new Wealdstone Square created a flexible space with more freedom for positive uses, such as markets, film screenings, performances and entertainment.

The project sits alongside the Council’s proposed new £45m civic campus development in Wealdstone. We Made That also worked alongside Gort Scott and Allies & Morrison to develop proposals for this site which provide improved access to council and community services, new council offices and retail opportunities to support the high street. We Made That have worked across the two projects to ensure integration within the wider delivery programmes.

Wealdstone Square, high street and new Civic Centre public realm

The strategic relocation of the civic centre will bring around 1000 council workers back onto the high street, stimulating the local high street economy and public realm improvements.

Alongside the physical transformation of Wealdstone Square, We Made That commissioned Spacemakers to deliver Wealdstone Youth Workshop - a public design project in collaboration with the young people of Wealdstone, to design and make furniture for use in the Square. Over the course of a year, six local 17 and 18 year olds – Esther, Kayleigh, Leo, Marina, Marius, and Tanya – worked with designers, Silo Studio, to research, design and produce public furniture. Their response – a new, modular furniture component – creates a range of stools, benches and chairs for use in Wealdstone Square.

“The project was a response to the situation we found in Wealdstone. We were initially asked to find new users and create new uses for the new square. We quickly realised, however, that the community had bigger problems: namely, a lack of activity for young people due to cuts to youth services, and the resulting negative perception of young people hanging around the town.”

The team set out to create a project that could change this dynamic, by putting the young people at the centre of what was happening in Wealdstone, and working with them to create something the rest of the community could use.

Project Details

Client: London Borough of Harrow
Status: Wealdstone Youth Workshop 2018
Wealdstone Square completed 2020
Value: £720,000 (phase 1), £45m (phase 2)
Team: We Made That, Spacemakers, Europa, Edible Bus Stop, Stockdale, Alan Baxter, Gort Scott, Allies & Morrison, Peter Brett Associates, Graham Harrington, Daisy Froud