Hutchinson & Partners proposals for Silk Park, a major landmark project for St.George, gained planning approval from the London Borough of Barnet in 2020. This placemaking led scheme will see the site of the existing Sainsbury’s in Hendon regenerated into a mixed use development comprising 1,309 new homes, a supermarket and space for cafes, restaurants and community uses, arranged in twelve buildings around a new public park and landscaped podium gardens. 35% of the new homes will be affordable housing.

Located at the confluence of the Silk Stream and Edgware Road and a short walk away from Hendon Station, the proposals will form one of a number of new places and communities that are emerging along one of the most historic routes into London. The proposals contribute to the aspirations of the London Borough of Barnet, the London Borough of Brent and TFL to reimagine the former Roman road as an urban boulevard with reduced road widths and junctions and widened pavements to increase the public realm and allow space for tree planting and urban greening.

The proposed design aims to balance, compliment and dignify the surroundings, providing a backdrop against which the development can flourish. The 12 different buildings range from four to twenty-eight stories and are harmonised through a common architectural language. The use of scale, subtle variation in materiality, colour and detailing ensures that the buildings each have a unique style that responds to their specific location within the site.  Generous entrances and gateways to the base of the buildings provide further activation at street level. The entrance to the new Supermarket is expressed by a grand colonnade which provides a civic frontage onto Edgware Road, responding to the Magistrates Court opposite, this and a variety of other commercial units provides activation along the street scape.

Hutchinson and Partners worked as lead designer, in collaboration with Makower Architects and landscape architect, Murdoch Wickham, to design 770 of the new homes, as well as the supermarket, across 9 of the 12 buildings.

Having already gained consent for schemes at Hendon Waterside and Colindale Gardens, Silk Park is the third project Hutchinson & Partners have gained planning for in the London Borough of Barnet, contributing in excess of 1,500 much needed new homes for the Borough and for London.