Landscape Design

In 2017 Berkeley Homes appointed HTA and the London Wildlife Trust to lead a team of experts to remodel and rewild an underused open space which had been initiated at the start of this 30-year estate regeneration programme. The project delivers on its goal to significantly increase biodiversity and has been recognised with the Mayor's Award for Sustainable and Environmental Planning and the Landscape Institute Presidents’ Award and the Sir David Attenborough Award for Enhancing Biodiversity. Our design response encourages residents, the local community, and visitors into the park with a dedicated play space and an enhanced and varied natural landscape. A soft planting and nature recovery strategy extends through the new buildings creating uplifting streets.

The new landscape at Cator Park is pioneering in its approach to Berkeley Homes new Net Biodiversity Gain Toolkit. This process was undertaken well in advance of legislative change which made achieving a Biodiversity Net Gain of 10% compulsory on new developments from November 2024. We worked with Berkeley to ensure they were ready for this challenge. We answered significant questions including how to deliver net biodiversity gain? How to cost for it? and how to look after it? As a result, the park achieves a net biodiversity gain of 161%, a whole 50% above the legislative standard ensuring the natural ecosystems at Cator Park will flourish long into the future.

Opening the park revealed how well natural spaces draw people in. We were confident we could restore nature on the site and were happy to see just how restorative the new wild landscape proved for people. Social prescribing and forest bathing are in the public eye for the benefits they bring to people’s mental health, and both find their place in Cator Park’s ability to connect people to each other and to connect people to nature. The park opened in 2020, quickly becoming a critical resource that served as the backdrop for daily walks and for families and friends to meet in their bubbles.

We worked closely with London Wildlife Trust to create a rich habitat mosaic that will allow nature to return to the site. This ensures an enhanced biodiversity offer and a legacy for the local community and London. London Wildlife Trust is the only charity dedicated solely to protecting the capital’s wildlife and wild spaces, engaging London’s diverse communities through access to their nature reserves, campaigning, volunteering and outdoor learning.

As part of the initial phase of the development, a network of balancing ponds were created throughout Cator Park, forming part of the water sensitive urban design (WSuD) strategy holding the water on site and mitigating against flooding elsewhere in the river system. When we came to work on the site, short mown grass and bedding plants lacking in ecological value had been planted on the banks of the lake. To create new rich ecosystems, we developed a mix of bespoke native wetland and marginal planting to create meaningful habitats that increase biodiversity around the water’s edge. We created the conditions for insect life which feeds small mammals and amphibians which in turn attract larger predatory animals at the apex of the food chain. Today, large animals such as wading Herons and raptors such as Peregrine Falcons have been attracted to the site.

We enabled the ponds to form the backbone of the landscape approach by introducing a path alongside them. This provides a fully accessible route through the park, connecting the existing bodies of water, providing play on the way, and inviting the public to discover and interact with the natural environment. Seating has been introduced along the boardwalk and on the bridges across the pond which connect the park with the new homes encouraging people to stop and be in nature.