Work to construct a new home for creative industry in Edmonton has started.
The work, to convert the former VOSA building on the site of Enfield Council’s £6bn Meridian Water development, will create workspace for Building BloQs to provide to thousands of freelance designers, makers and small businesses, many of them local residents.
This new BLoQs workshop will provide 30,000sq feet of workspace and support up to 1,000 makers and creators across a range of departments – engineering, wood, metal, digital and additive technology, paint finishing, and a fashion studio for many years to come.
Workers will also have access to more than £1 million worth of light industrial equipment and there will also be new skills training facilities, a waterside café, gardens, a shop and event space all of which will be easily accessible to Enfield residents.
The construction project will also safeguard 84 jobs and create an extra 204 over the lifetime of the construction which is expected to last until spring 2021. The project is being funded through grant funding from the GLA and Enfield Council.
The jobs created will contribute to the target of providing 1,000 meanwhile jobs outlined in the Meridian Water Employment Strategy: Your Place to Make and Create.
Planning permission for the scheme was granted last year. Building BloQs is a key partner on Enfield Council’s Meridian Water development, which seeks to provide 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs and to create 8.2 hectares of parkland in the Lea Valley over the coming 25 years.
Enfield Council has taken control of the vision and delivery of Meridian Water to ensure that local people are the principal beneficiaries. It aims to provide thousands of affordable homes and quality jobs in Enfield as well new schools, community and health services, nurseries, shops and youth and leisure facilities.
The Leader of Enfield Council, Cllr Nesil Caliskan, said: “This is yet more evidence of the progress we are making at Meridian Water and a great example of helping a local business grow.
“This development will genuinely benefit local people both in the coming years and for decades to come and I am delighted that we are delivering a transformation project that will raise aspirations, improve peoples lives, tackle the housing crisis locally and provide good quality jobs and training at a time when they are most needed.
“In addition to supporting local people, this scheme enables us develop a skilled creative industries cluster in our borough which has the potential to be regionally significant for makers and creative communities. The expansion of the Building BloQs workshop will provide higher levels of employment than otherwise would have been realised.”
The Council has set out a clear vision for the project which puts placemaking at the heart of the project. The Council has focused on three pillars of placemaking: Parklife on Your Doorstep; Your Place to Make and Create; and Mixing Uses, Animating Streets. The partnership with Building BloQs is a strategic fit with the development’s Your Place to Make and Create pillar, as set out in its vision document.
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NOTES FOR EDITORS
The existing VOSA building will be refurbished and adapted to Building BloQs’ needs – most of the existing building will be used for workshop space, while the remainder will provide a public entrance, cafe, exhibition / events, support space and other uses.
A new workshop space will be provided in an extension to the east of the existing building – providing flexible workshop space and a link to the existing building.
A series of spaces around the buildings will be added including an entrance / cafe yard and roof terrace oriented toward the riverside, a courtyard between the two main workshop spaces, and a hard-working service yard toward the rear.
A comprehensive and highly sustainable building servicing strategy – with heating throughout based around the re-use for waste wood from the workshop will also be adopted.
About Building BloQs (https://buildingbloqs.com/)
Building BloQs is London’s largest open workshop, offering access to top-quality professional workspace without the overheads. The spaces feature professional machines and equipment, offered at affordable rates to pro makers. Use of the workshop facilities is pay-as-you-go, so you only pay for what you need, when you need it. It’s an ideal way of working for individual makers, start-ups and small businesses.
About Meridian Water (www.meridianwater.co.uk)
Meridian Water is one of London’s biggest redevelopment schemes, comprising 210 acres of brownfield land next door to the beautiful Lee Valley Regional Park in the south of the London Borough of Enfield. It is currently undergoing a £6bn transformation, led by the local authority, to create a brand-new part of London.
Once complete, this new waterside neighbourhood will boast eight and a half acres of green open spaces, shops, restaurants, workspaces and 10,000 new homes.
The vision is for Meridian Water to be an affordable neighbourhood with a strong sense of community, where people of all generations and backgrounds can live, work and spend time together. The Council are taking the lead to ensure that Meridian Water seamlessly knits into and genuinely benefits our existing local communities.
It will provide 6,000 high value jobs and most importantly will provide training and education to ensure residents have access to these opportunities. There will also be health centres, schools and all the community infrastructure that both new and existing residents need.
The transformation is underway – the new train station has been up and running since 2019, while the first new homes, roads, bridges, footpaths and cycleways are currently being built.
For local people and those further afield, Meridian Water will become a new destination to enjoy water sports, nightlife, music, theatre, cinema and much more, all year round
