Gants Hill Community Hub

Volunteer community researchers have designed a research project focusing on the ‘people and place’ of Gants Hill and want to hear residents’ experiences of Gants Hill.

The community-led research project, in partnership with Redbridge Council and University College London (UCL), will see volunteer explore three areas to explore the local community. These are:

• Community cohesion: To understand the diversity of Gants Hill
• Environment: To understand the impact that litter has on mental health and experiment with different approaches to reduce littering.
• Activities and Spaces: To understand the spaces we currently use to share and learn together, and what activities are available or missing in Gants Hill

Click here to complete the survey. You will have options to choose which questions you would like to answer.

If you have been approached to be photographed or filmed, click here to complete the photo consent form in order to take part.

Volunteers will be hosting an event to share their findings back to the community later this year. The findings will be used to shape activities in the local area, including the future Gants Hill Hub. Sign up here to receive more information and keep in touch with the project.

Eastern Avenue c. 1956.
Photo credit: www.gants-hill.comDo you live, work or study in Gants Hill or have an interest in the area? Volunteer researchers are being invited by Redbridge Council and University College London (UCL) to learn more about Gants Hill, building on recommendations from local residents to explore the themes of ‘people and place’ across the area.

If you would like to find out more, please watch a recording of the Information Session. Alternatively, you can click here to view the presentation or read the questions and answers from the session.

The Gants Hill Hub Design Group has completed the first stage of the co-design process and developed ten ‘design principles’ for the Gants Hill Hub site.

The group is made up of 40 local residents of different ages, backgrounds and perspectives, and representatives from charity, health, business, political groups along with RCKa architects and Redbridge Council.

Residents were encouraged to use their networks to feed in wider views, which enabled more than 250 local people to contribute their views. In addition, Redbridge Council held a public webinar so people could hear about the emerging design principles and feedback during the session and via a survey.

Local residents helped appoint architects early in 2020, and the Design Group then developed ten ‘design principles’ for the Gants Hill Hub site, situated on Cranbrook Road, through five in-depth online workshops. The group identified green spaces, safety and services as the most important principles for the site. They agreed the top priority should be that green space is preserved, expanded or spread across the site.

The group also agreed how proposals for a number of factors should be approached. These included how library services should be retained and that sustainability should be highlighted as a key priority. The group felt car parking should be deprioritised, in particular for out of borough commuters.

Feedback from the group showed 85% agreed the co-design process improved the project brief, with 94% feeling they’d been given an opportunity to express their views.

Gants Hill resident Manoj Vaidya said: “I got involved in the co-design process as I wanted to shape what was created in my local area. Once it’s open, there will be a sense of pride that we helped design an important part of our community.”

The result of the workshops has been drawn together in a report for the Gants Hill Hub site, which includes an overview of the design principles developed, a capacity study of the site and lessons from the co-design process. The report and the design principles will be built on in the next phase of the process and will shape how the scheme is developed.

Image: co-design illustration credit to RCKa architects

The Gants Hill Hub Design Group is a group of 40 local residents, brought together through an independent selection process, and representative of the population's age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability and ward.

The group is working with RCKa architects, the council and representatives from business, charitable and political groups, to develop a concept design for the Gants Hill site, including the future of Gants Hill Library. The group is meeting five times across September, October and November, with updates on progress and opportunities to feed back provided to the wider public.

In the fourth workshop, the group discussed and reviewed a set of 'design principles' which had been developed through the process. The 'design principles' form part of the final report from RCKa architects which will shape the architectural plans for Gants Hill Hub, when the project is taken to its next stage in the new year.

The wider public has been invited to hear about the process to date, the design principles and the next steps for the project by attending a public webinar on Thursday 29th October at 5.30pm. Free tickets can be obtained via the widget on the right hand side of the Gants Hill Hub site you are on or by visiting Eventbrite.

The design principles can be seen below, or you can access the full Session 4 document here.

The Gants Hill Hub Design Group is a group of 40 local residents, brought together through an independent selection process, and representative of the population's age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability and ward.

The group is working with RCKa architects, the council and representatives from business, charitable and political groups, to develop a concept design for the Gants Hill site, including the future of Gants Hill Library. The group is meeting five times across September, October and November, with updates on progress and opportunities to feed back provided to the wider public.

In the first workshop, the focus was on the unique identity of the Gants Hill area. Residents discussed what was special about their neighbourhoods, and spoke to their networks to develop a picture of the area's identity. (If you would like to contribute you stories or thoughts about the Gants Hill area, please click here.)

In the second workshop, RCKa architects presented information about the Gants Hill Hub site, including the policy context, considerations about different elements of the site, and information about council and health services, and activities which could be run from the new hub. (You can view the presentation below, but if it is not appearing trying clicking here.)

The presentation provided a basis for further discussion about what residents most value about the site, and which elements should be prioritised, strengthened, changed or reduced. Residents also discussed which services were most and least important, and what activities would bring the community together.

In the third workshop, the group participated in a snap poll to assess how different parts of the site might be approached, and RCKa architects shared a number of hypothetical examples of how the scheme on the Gants Hill Hub site could look, for feedback. (You can view the presentation below, but if it is not appearing trying clicking here.)

An opportunity to respond to these questions will be added to this site shortly. All discussions and views, as well as those of the wider public, will be fed into the development of the concept design and feasibility study, and be shared publicly at the end of this piece of work, in late October or November.

If you want to find out more about the Gants Hill Hub approach, timeline or background information, please look at the Documents, Timeline and FAQs sidebars on the main Gants Hill Hub page.