Aylesbury Estate Masterplan

The Aylesbury Estate masterplan is one of London’s largest housing estate regeneration projects, delivering 3,647 mixed-tenure homes. Our masterplan vision replaces the modernist concept of large buildings, ‘streets in the sky’ and wider landscapes with an urban pattern reflecting the streets and landscaped squares of the surrounding historical context.

This approach ties the site into its context, removing the physical and perceived barriers that signalled the edges of the existing estate. The masterplan knits Aylesbury Estate back into the existing street network, enabling better connections into the estate for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as connections to Burgess Park. Pocket parks and squares are peppered throughout the masterplan providing opportunities for meeting, resting and playing.

HTA led the design team throughout the bid process and spearheaded the outline application for the phased redevelopment of the site. We worked as masterplanners, sustainability consultants and landscape architects, and are Lead Architect for the first phase working in collaboration with architects Hawkins Brown and Mae, which will deliver a wide range of homes in a combination of terraced housing.

Existing monolithic slab blocks are replaced with smaller perimeter blocks, comprising familiar London typologies of terraced housing and mansion buildings. Streets have been reinstated resulting in a permeable, finer urban grain in keeping with the surrounding block patterning. Ground floors have been reclaimed and streets provide variety and connctions that are lined with trees and front doors.

Residential towers are located at key points within the masterplan. The towers will provide homes that look out onto small squares, parks, and tree-lined streets.

In addition to the mixed-tenure homes, the masterplan delivers 7,800 sqm of employment, retail, healthcare, and community floor space, including a completed health centre and library. The masterplan vision delivers new neighbourhoods of outstanding quality and integrates the estate into the wider network of Walworth and Southeast London.

A linked network of open spaces is a key part of the concept and is developed to form an integral part of the masterplan. The peppered layout and diversity in the design of open spaces, parks and squares create various character areas and identities across the scheme. Hard landscaped spaces have been designed around civic uses to provide moments to rest and wait.

Streets are appealing and safe with regular tree planting that changes with the seasons. The green network integrates Aylesbury into its broader context, encouraging walking and cycling beyond the estate. Strong north-south links that connect to Burgess Park and Elephant and Castle.

As part of the public engagement programme at the Aylesbury Estate we hosted an Assemble & Join the pop-up on the site now occupied by Plot 18 and the new public square. Hosted over four weeks during the school summer holidays, the project attracted hundreds of local people, especially children, all designing and building items for the local area.

Our client at Notting Hill Genesis worked with us to make the project happen and to help advertise it across the estate. We ran daily workshops for 4 full days, and created many items including street furniture, table tennis tables, bird boxes, planters, a new cross for the church, signage for youth clubs and the local community centre.

The established programme of designing days and making days resulted in the individuals and groups participating to decide chess tables, signs, skateboard ramps and football targets were needed in the play areas and open spaces.