from vision to reality

Wembley is one of London’s most ambitious regeneration projects. The scale and pace of change over the last few years has been breathtaking.

New Wembley Stadium is now complete and bringing world-class eventsback to Wembley. Wembley Arena has had a £35 million transformation,sensitively returning the building to its former glory and creating newWembley’s first public space between the stadium and Wembley Arenawith interactive fountains and light shows.

This is only the beginning. Planning permission has also been granted tobuild 4,000 new homes, a luxury hotel, designer shops and restaurants,leisure facilities and unrivalled community space. Building work has alreadystarted on site on the land surrounding the stadium and at Central Squareon Wembley High Road.

The public sector has played a crucial part. Over £80 million has beeninvested to upgrade and improve transport and infrastructure. With thepublic transport upgrades complete, Wembley now has the capacity tocarry 50,000 passengers an hour to and from the area easily and safely.

The time has come to review and renew Brent Council’s vision forWembley; to take stock of the Wembley journey, to celebrate the progressto date, to reflect on the relevance of the existing priorities and to refinethe Wembley vision accordingly.

This document sets out how Brent Council will continue to lead theregeneration agenda. It demonstrates our ongoing commitment to theproject, and marks the next stage of dialogue with the people of Brentabout how they can best take advantage of the many opportunities on offer.

I am determined to ensure that local residents are full participants in,and beneficiaries of, the regeneration of Wembley.

I look forward to working with you all to deliver a new Wembley of whichwe can all be proud.

Councillor Paul Lorber,Leader of Brent Council

Introduction

It is an important document that sets the overalldirection for the Wembley project as a whole. It isthe touchstone for the key portfolio of technicaldocuments that drive the nature of the developmentat Wembley, including the ‘Wembley Framework forDevelopment’, the ‘Wembley Masterplan’ and theWembley policies in the emerging Brent LocalDevelopment Framework.

It has sent a clear and consistent message to thedevelopment world about Brent’s expectations andambitions for Wembley, and has shaped thesubsequent planning applications that have comeforward since 2002.

“Imagine a new Wembley! A new place, a newhome and a new destination – modern, urban andexciting. At its core will be a comprehensive range ofleisure and commercial facilities, exploiting excellentpublic transport connections to the rest of Londonand the United Kingdom, all in a contemporary, livelyand distinctive setting.”

“Wembley will have a modern, service basedeconomy. Hotels, restaurants, offices, shops, leisure usesand an array of other businesses will provide thousands

of new jobs and meet the needs of both visitors andlocal residents, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

“Where once there was redundant and under-usedcommercial land, there will be a thriving city quarteroffering a unique city experience with a range ofquality and affordable homes. The new Wembley willepitomise the very best of modern urban living.”

In terms of land use, our vision for Wembley sets outthe council’s expectations and ambitions for newdevelopment in Wembley. The key components include:

H The new Wembley Stadium

H A community focus for Brent, including a newcivic centre

H High quality commercial and retail facilities

H A mixture of housing types and tenures

H The London Convention Centre

H A centre for work

H A cultural and educational centre

H An accessible development

Our vision for Wembley

Brent’s vision for Wembley was launched in November 2002. It challengesour partners to deliver a new Wembley, which by 2020 will be the vibrantheart of Brent, a key contributor to the London economy, and a nationaland international destination.

lively anddistinctive …

…a modern, servicebased economy…

…thousandsof new jobs …

… a thriving cityquarter…

Multicultural Wembley

Wembley is home to one of the mostdiverse communities in Europe. Thenew Wembley will both embrace andcelebrate this diversity, which shouldbe reflected in the quality of theenvironment, the facilities on offer,the business base and the events stagedin Wembley.

Quality Wembley

There can be no compromise on quality.Quite simply – quality building designs, ina quality environment, creating a qualityplace. The sheer buzz and vitality of thenew Wembley will both draw visitors andtempt them to stay.

Exciting Wembley

Wembley will be a lively, excitingand safe place, incorporating boldarchitecture that captures theimagination. The environment will bevisually stimulating. Prominent and highquality public art will reflect Brent’scosmopolitan society. Major institutionswill want to be seen to have a presencein Wembley.

Sustainable Wembley

We will pursue vigorously our strategy toprovide easy access to Wembley withoutthe need for a car. New Wembley is andwill remain a public transport destination.We want and expect business andresidential premises to incorporate highstandards of energy efficiency and willensure carbon emissions are minimisedand effectively managed.

Core principles

Our vision for Wembley isunderpinned by eight coreprinciples.

New Wembley

We believe that the regeneration of Wembley is aspectacular opportunity to transform a fundament-ally drab industrial estate into an integral and excitingpiece of urban London. There is also a unique andtimely opportunity to redefine and reconfigure therole of the existing Wembley High Road.

Brent’s Wembley

Wembley will provide a focal point for Brent’s manycommunities. Local people will come here to work,shop, meet, be entertained, rest and access a wholerange of public services. It will be a place wherepeople are proud to live and eager to visit.

Destination Wembley

We want to maximise the positive impact of thestadium on Wembley, making use of the plannedimprovements to public transport to ensure thatWembley becomes a destination of choice through-out the year for entertainment, business andcommunity events.

Business Wembley

At the heart of our proposal is the confident beliefthat the new Wembley will make an even greatercontribution to the economy of London. We willwork to capitalise on its powerful brand name,recognised the world over, to bring tangible benefitsto the competitiveness of the London economy.

New Wembley Stadium

There is no more an evocative name in Englishfootball than Wembley Stadium. The stadium, withits iconic arch designed by Foster and Partnersarchitects, is undoubtedly the greatest football arenain the world. It has been designed specifically toprovide an unparalleled visitor experience. Every oneof its 90,000 seats has an unimpeded view of thepitch. The acoustics are planned to create an electricatmosphere. And, the retractable roof means thatevery spectator will be sheltered from the elements.The stadium’s arch is an iconic new landmark on theLondon skyline visible from miles around.

Wembley will play a role in the 2012 LondonOlympics, hosting the quarter, semi and final stagesof the football tournaments. It will also be thecentrepiece of future UK bids to host the footballWorld Cup and European Championships.

The stadium will provide a major boost to theLondon and local economy. On event days up to5,000 people will work directly at the stadium.The banqueting and hospitality facilities will ensureyear round employment opportunities. Brent Council’sBrent in2work team have already secured full timejobs for 75 local residents with the primary cateringcontractor, Delaware North.

Delivering the vision

Over the last five years, the progressmade on delivering our vision forWembley has been staggering.Wembley is undoubtedly oneof London’s fastest movingregeneration schemes. WembleyStadium is complete and has alreadychanged the local landscape.Wembley Arena has beenrefurbished and re-orientated andeach of Wembley’s three stationshas been dramatically improved.The stunning new White HorseBridge, and the magnificent ArenaSquare with its interactive fountainsand lightshow set an impressiveblueprint for the remainder of theregeneration programme – we arebeginning to see the Wembley ofthe future.

Delivering new infrastructure

A key feature of Brent’s vision for Wembley is thedesire to create a place that is accessible to all, bothon event days and for the remainder of the year. Thelast five years has seen a massive investment in bothpublic transport and road improvements to the area,designed not just to cater for visitors to Wembley,but to minimise the impact of large numbers ofvisitors on local residents and businesses.

On stadium event days visitors will be encouragedto use public transport. Event tickets will clearly statethat car parking is not available unless pre-bookedwith tickets. Brent Council has vigorously pursued athree station strategy to ensure visitors are able toarrive and depart from each of Wembley’s threestations quickly and comfortably. Over £80 millionhas been invested in rebuilding and improving thestations to the benefit of visitors, commuters andlocal residents alike. Around 100 trains per hour willarrive and depart from Wembley on event days andall stations have improved access for disabledcustomers.

Wembley Park station

A major refurbishment and extension has beencompleted increasing the station capacity to 37,000passengers per hour. This incorporates a newentrance, ticket hall, platforms, footbridge and lifts,together with improved signage and lighting and anew taxi interchange adjacent to the station. Workscontinue to modernise the commuter ticket hall andexternal canopy.

Wembley Stadium station

The centrepiece is the stunning new White HorseBridge, designed by Marks Barfield Architects, whichwill link the stadium and its surrounding regenerationarea with the existing town centre. Platforms havebeen extended to enable one extra carriage to beadded to Chiltern Line trains increasing the capacity byan extra 1,000 passengers an hour. A new publicsquare has been created adjacent to the station.

Wembley Central station

Wembley Central has been modernised to improveboth capacity and safety. The ticket office has beenimproved, lifts and CCTV installed and a newpedestrian footbridge built to improve accessibility onevent days. The station is now capable of handling upto 12,000 people an hour. The environment andfrontage of the station will be vastly improved as StModwen Properties’ Wembley Central Squaredevelopment is built over the coming years.

Bus improvements

For many local people buses are an important meansof travelling to Wembley. As the regenerationschemes progress existing bus routes will be expandedand enhanced. Already it has been agreed that buseswill be re-routed through the stadium regenerationarea to deliver local people into the heart of the newshops, cafés, employment and leisure facilities.

Roads

To minimise congestion on local roads, all visitorsdriving to events will be routed via a new two-waytidal highway linking the stadium with the NorthCircular Road. A new road has also been completedaround the Wembley industrial estate to reduce theconflict between event day traffic and businesstraffic. Easier access via the North Circular Roadmeans local businesses can remain fully functional onevent days.

Although the stadium has been designed primarilyas a public transport venue, there are still over 6,000car parking spaces available in the area. On non-event days these spaces will provide ample carparking to service the new shops, cinemas, leisureand cafés within the regeneration area. Theintroduction of parking permits for event days forlocal residents and businesses is designed specificallyto protect residents and local businesses from illegalparking by visitors.

A new Wembley – regeneration schemes

Since the launch of our vision the regeneration ofWembley has moved forward at a rapid pace, fasterthan any other scheme of this scale across London.Progress to date has been focussed in two keylocations, the area immediately surrounding thestadium and the area around the High Road.

Quintain Estates and Development plc is the leaddeveloper for land surrounding the new stadium.The company has acquired over 23 hectares (70 acres)of land and secured outline planning permission for alarge proportion of this. Masterplanned by the RichardRogers Partnership, the scheme is focussed on threesubstantial new public spaces for London, linked by astunning new boulevard the length and width ofRegent Street.

A £35 million refurbishment of Wembley Arena isnow complete, sensitively restoring this listed buildingto its former glory and re-orienting it to face onto thenew Arena Square. With interactive fountains, soundand light shows the square is already a local landmarkand a favourite place to gather. Wembley’s Square ofFame gallery further enhances the attraction.Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Sir Cliff Richard havealready left an imprint of their hands on a bronzeplaque around the square – more names are to follow.

Work has now begun on the first new residentialblock immediately adjacent to the Arena. Designedby PRP architects the block consists of 286 newapartments surrounding an inner courtyard. This willinclude a new nursery and an employment portal –‘Wembley Works!’

The public sector has played its part here too. TheLondon Development Agency completed its first everCompulsory Purchase Order to deliver a proportionof the land, while Brent Council negotiated over £25million of local benefits to be delivered through thescheme. These include a new healthy living centre forfive GPs, up to £9 million towards a new school, £2.5million to help train local people to secure the newjobs, 8,200sqm of community facilities andcontributions towards improvements to stations,buses, road junctions and public art.

Wembley High Road

Good progress has been made on a number of HighRoad sites over the last five years. Perhaps mostsignificantly work has now begun on Rotch and StModwen Properties’ £50 million redevelopment ofWembley Central Square. The scheme will deliver 235residential units, 12,800sqm (138,000 sqft) of newretail and leisure floorspace on the lower floors.

Critically the scheme will also create a new townsquare and vastly improved access to WembleyCentral station.

Work is also underway on a new residential andtown centre car park scheme on the site of theformer Elm Road car park in Wembley Town Centrefor 64 affordable and 57 private apartments, and 249car parking spaces.

The £3.5 billion development will feature:

H 4,200 new homes, of which 38 per centwill be affordable

H 45,000 sqm (487,000 sqft) of leisure andentertainment facilities, including a multi-screen cinema

H 54,000 sqm (587,000 sqft) of new retail,incorporating London’s first designeroutlet centre, a specialist sports retail cluster,high street retail, restaurants and bars

H 84,000 sqm (910,000 sqft) of office andcommercial uses

H a new luxury Hilton hotel, together witha new apart-hotel

H 7,000 new jobs accessible to local people.

Together with our partners, BrentCouncil has made huge stridestowards delivering our vision for anew Wembley in a very short spaceof time. The time is now right totake stock of the Wembley journey,to celebrate progress to date, reflecton the relevance of the existingpriorities and subsequently toreview, renew and refine theWembley vision accordingly.

A key feature of Wembley’s regeneration has beenBrent Council’s insistence on the highest possiblequality in all that is proposed and delivered. Inrefining our vision and moving forward we want toensure that this remains the case. We are determinedthat Wembley will be an international destinationwhich the people of Brent, London and the UK are asproud of in the future as they have been in the past.

Quality Destination

Wembley will continue to capitalise on theinternational fame associated with the nationalstadium. Wembley will be home to an increasinglydiverse range of leisure and cultural facilities, designedto draw in visitors and tourists and meet the needs oflocal people. In a few years, the new stadium will becomplemented by cinemas, gyms, restaurants, cafés,museums, galleries, clubs, bars, public art, outdoorperformances and street theatre. We will activelypursue opportunities to deliver other major visitorattractions to complement the stadium and the Arena.

Wembley will also deliver international styleconferencing and convention facilities to broaden theappeal of Wembley to business tourists.

Wembley will be a key venue for the 2012 LondonOlympics, providing a once in a lifetime opportunity tocapture the inspiration and aspirations associated withthe greatest show on earth. We will ensure thatWembley maximises this opportunity by playing a fullrole in the 2008 handover ceremony from the BeijingOlympics and subsequently by developing aprogramme of events leading up to 2012.

Our aim is for Wembley to become one of London’s‘must visit’ tourist destinations.

Quality Retail

For far too long the residents of north west Londonhave had a poor retail offer. Wembley will help totransform this, in conjunction with the majorproposals at White City and Brent Cross, by providinghigh quality and diverse shopping facilities within anexceptional public realm.

Alongside London’s first designer outlet centre andspecialist sports retail, we want to bring high streetbrands to Wembley, creating a new concentration ofretail uses and reinventing the town centre. And, wewant to continue to explore the potential for moreethnic retail centres and markets, capitalising on thestrength of areas like the Ealing Road.

From vision to reality

Wembley will be an

international destination of

which the people of Brent,

London and the UK can

be duly proud.

Quality jobs

Central to our ambitions is that Wembley, togetherwith its near neighbour Park Royal, becomes a keydriver in the west London economy, providing asustainable source of jobs for local people. There willbe new job opportunities for local people in hotels,catering, hospitality, entertainment, cultural industries,retail and commercial services to name but a few.

We will transform the Wembley Industrial Estate,working with the private sector to develop this areainto a modern employment area, providing a richvariety of sustainable jobs for local people.

There will be a strong focus through Brent in2workon ensuring that local people are best placed tosecure the new jobs on offer, both duringconstruction and more importantly within thecompleted developments. We will continue to workwith employers to provide bespoke training,recruitment services and interview guaranteeschemes for local people. And we will provide a newfast bus service between Wembley and Park Royal,linking local people to the new jobs and facilities.

Quality community facilities

Brent is the most diverse borough in the UnitedKingdom. Critical to our vision for a new Wembley isthat this diversity is respected and reflectedthroughout the regeneration proposals that comeforward.

The new Wembley will provide a range ofcommunity and cultural facilities designed specificallyto attract all of our communities into the area. Therewill be a new civic centre and a flagship library, forthe first time providing a single public service facilityunder one roof. Wembley will be a venue for festivalsand celebrations reflecting all faiths. Theperformance venues and cinemas will provideentertainment for all. And the public arts programmewill reflect Brent’s diversity.

We believe that Wembley’s diversity is a realstrength and our aim is for Wembley to be London’smost cosmopolitan destination.

Quality homes

Throughout the regeneration process we must neverforget that Wembley has been, is, and will continueto be home to many people. Already 6,000 newhomes are proposed and underway as part of thenew Wembley regeneration project.

Our aim is to ensure that Wembley remains a homeof choice. There will be a range of quality newhousing – private, shared ownership, social rentedand key worker. We will insist on mixed tenure blockswherever this is appropriate.

For Wembley to be a home of choice thesurrounding facilities will also need to be excellent.There will be new schools, colleges and healthfacilities, easily accessible for new and existingresidents alike. Transport facilities will be improvedand enhanced further, with improved tube rail, roadand bus links.

Quality design

Quite simply, if we are to deliver our vision for a newWembley we must deliver the highest quality designsin the highest quality environment. The new WembleyStadium, the refurbished Wembley Arena, the WhiteHorse Bridge and the new Arena Square haveestablished an impressive precedent which futureregeneration proposals will need to match.

To achieve this we will continue to work with highquality designers and architects and we will insistupon incorporating high quality and sustainableenvironmental features into the design of both newbuildings and the environment as a whole.

Thinking flexibly and imaginatively aboutthe boundaries of the regeneration area,to ensure the best possible solutions forthe people of London and Brent. We willbe pragmatic and open-minded in ourapproach to new proposals.

Continuing to promote enhancements topublic transport and infrastructure and easeof access to the area for all people, groups andcommunities. The new Wembley will be one ofthe most accessible destinations in the country.

Ensuring that residents of West London’sdeprived communities are better placed to takeadvantage of the employment opportunitiesassociated with the regeneration of Wembley,both during the construction phases andbeyond. Local residents will be full participantsin – and beneficiaries of the regeneration ofWembley.

Identifying appropriate partners to providestrategic and quality housing opportunities.The development of high quality housingfor all social groups is a major objective forthe council and the regeneration of Wembleywill play its part in achieving it.

Delivering the existing regenerationprogrammes in a way that maximises theirimpact on the delivery of this vision. We willwork creatively with funding bodies andpartner agencies to ensure a genuinelycomprehensive development.

Providing civic leadership by ensuring forumsfor debate and consultation with local residentsand businesses. We will build on our existingconsultation and will maintain an opendialogue with local residents at every stage.

Our commitments

Successfully delivering thisambitious vision will continue tobe a challenge. Brent Council isfully committed to delivering anew Wembley. Specifically wecommit to:

Working in partnership with developers,the Government, the Mayor of London,the Greater London Authority, the LondonDevelopment Agency, Transport for London,West London and neighbouring boroughs andother strategic partners (including the private,not-for-profit and voluntary/communitysectors) to help delivery of our vision.

Securing the best possible fundingpackages to assist in the regenerationin line with this vision. Brent alreadyhas an impressive track record ofattracting funding and we will use thisexpertise to further boost the area.

Investing council and other resources into amulti-disciplinary project team able to driveforward regeneration in line with the ambitionsset out in this document. Encompassing regen-eration, planning, housing, communication,consultation and property specialists, the teamwill provide an effective and efficient ‘one stop’service to all development partners.

Taking a direct stake in the area by developinga major civic and community facility as part ofthe regeneration. This will give Brent Council aphysical presence in the Wembley regenerationarea and affords an exciting opportunity towork closely with other public sector providers.

www.brent.gov.uk

Produced by Brent CouncilJune 2007 BDU 5471