Brent Cross Cricklewood is London’s next major regeneration scheme. Over a period of around 20 years we plan to create a new town centre in the area bringing 27,000 jobs, 7,500 new homes, a transformed Brent Cross Shopping Centre, a new commercial district, a new high street and exceptional parks and open spaces. The plans will also deliver massive investment into transport and community facilities, including modern new buildings for three schools, new health facilities, a new train station, new bus station, new bridges and road junctions as well as a huge improvement to Clitterhouse Playing Fields.
The regeneration area covers over 150 hectares - that’s the size of over 200 football pitches - including Brent Cross Shopping Centre to the north, the A41 and Brent Cross Tube station to the east, Cricklewood Lane to the south and the A5 (Edgware Road) to the west. You can see an aerial view of the area in the ‘About the Area’ section of this website.
The plans have been in development for many years but it is only now a planning application. It responds to Barnet Council planning policy, adopted in 2005 and 2006, called the Cricklewood, Brent Cross and West Hendon Regeneration Area Development Framework which set out a framework for the development of a new town centre.. The West Hendon area has already been subject to its own planning application.
The next step is for Barnet Council to consult local people as part of its process to decide whether or not to grant planning permission. It is likely that a decision will be made in early 2009.
The whole scheme will take around 20 years to complete. Delivering the scheme in stages will help to minimise disruption to local people, while a series of agreed ‘triggers’ will ensure that community and other facilities are delivered in parallel with the new homes, shops and offices. Construction would start around 2011 subject to planning approval.
The area now does not function very well and is dominated by the major roads and rail lines. This planning application will bring the greatest investment in new transport infrastructure in the area's history – and all of it funded by the developers not from Council Tax. Transport improvements will include a new mainline station on the Midland Mainline running via King Cross, with 5 platforms and capacity for 50,000 passengers a day. The bus station at Brent Cross Shopping Centre will double in size and both Brent Cross tube station and Cricklewood mainline station will see significant improvements to access for pedestrians and buses. Five new pedestrian bridges will be created to dramatically improve linkages and major road junctions will see significant work to increase their capacity. Within the regeneration area new dedicated pedestrian and cycle routes will link together the whole site. You can see more information about these plans in the ‘Transport Improvements’ section of this website.
New schools with modern facilities will be built to replace the current buildings for Whitefield School, Mapledown School and Claremont Primary School. All of these schools will have additional places to cater for the increased number of children who will be living in the area. Major new health facilities will be built facilitating greater GP provision. A new sports and leisure centre will replace Hendon Sports Centre, and a community centre, library and other facilities will also be provided.
Brent Cross shopping centre will change from an inward looking out of town shopping centre surrounded by surface car parking, to a key part of the new town centre. Improved entrance and exit arrangements will mean vehicles will be filtered off into basement level or multi-storey car parks. This frees up space for new shops to open out into a pedestrian-only High Street and public square. New cafes, restaurants and leisure facilities including a multi-screen cinema will also be created, overlooking a cleaned and freer flowing River Brent.
Following the regeneration the area will have more green space than it does now. The developers will invest millions of pounds in improvements to green space. The focal point of this will be Clitterhouse Playing Fields which will be completely re-profiled with millions of pounds spent on extensive landscaping and new sports facilities. This will be backed up by community sports and leisure programmes to encourage people to use the park. A maintenance regime including a dedicated Park Ranger is also planned. You can see more information about these plans in the ‘Playing Fields’ section of this website.
New homes will be located both north and south of the North Circular Road (A406), with most of them on the south side close to Clitterhouse Playing Fields and the schools. You can view an illustrative Masterplan for the area ‘Indicative Layout’ section of this website.
The regeneration will be delivered in phases, but existing buildings will be replaced including the Whitefield Estate and the Tesco as well as the schools and Hendon Leisure Centre. The schools and leisure centre are all being replaced by more modern facilities, and all tenants of the Whitefield Estate will be allocated new properties within the regeneration area. Importantly, no housing or community facility will be lost until its replacement is already built and up and running. No-one will be asked to leave their home on the Whitefield Estate until 2012 at the earliest. Brent Cross Shopping Centre itself will remain in place, with new buildings being built alongside it and opening out onto the street rather than in a covered mall.
All of the planning application documents are on-line on this website
– you can view them by clicking here.
Any comments can be made directly to the Council by writing to: Planning Department, London Borough of Barnet, Building 4, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP.
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