The Regeneration of Old Oak Common – The Time Has Come

Whilst the debate over HS2 continues, the role of Old Oak Common is once again being questioned.  The Prime Minister states that Old Oak is well connected but are they leveraging its true potential and a return on the rail infrastructure investment?

Old Oak needs to be an ambitious transport hub, that the Victorians would have been honoured to hear of.  It is an opportunity for the ‘Elizabeth Station’ to be at the heart of the wider regeneration of Old Oak & Park Royal, and the catalyst for its delivery, creating a vibrant new London quarter to match that at King’s Cross.  Simply building an interchange similar to the likes of a budget friendly Clapham Junction, is a huge missed opportunity.

Now is a chance to be ambitious and design a modern, 21st Century transport campus.  When people say Old Oak is “out in the sticks”, look at the map of London when Euston was opened in 1837.  There are similarities.

In 2013, Earth was commissioned to develop a financial masterplan for Old Oak Common and the surrounding area.  To do this we worked closely with Farrells, the masterplanners and in 2014, we reported on the public purse impact and the required actions to deliver this significant opportunity.  In February 2020, Earth posted a news article on this missed opportunity.

Our work recognised the importance of Old Oak as a major new London station with its connectivity to the Elizabeth Line and the other transport links in the area.  Indeed, the fact that this area has not been regenerated before and remains London’s largest brownfield site, is because of the complex rail routes that need to be overcome.  Farrells had a solution then and it is still not too late to develop a plan B that delivers this potential opportunity.

The benefits would include some: 25,000 new homes, 60,000 jobs created and 8.5 m sqft of commercial space, creating a new quarter to complement that of the Knowledge Quarter around King’s Cross.  Also, and very importantly, this new quarter would provide a major payback to the public sector, resulting from the investment in the infrastructure to date.

The need to leverage the HS2 investment in Old Oak remains as powerful today as it did in 2013, but we need a different approach to delivering this.  It can be done in this country.   Just look at Greenwich Peninsula and Salford Quays.

Let’s deliver the long-term benefit from HS2 and Crossrail, to Old Oak by 2037, in time for Euston Station’s 200^th birthday.