Huge congratulations to Haringey Council and The Selby Trust for securing £20 million government funding for Selby Urban Village; a project to re-envision the Selby and Bull Lane sites in Tottenham into a community-focussed neighbourhood of new homes (50% council rent), sports facilities, a public park, and a new and improved Selby Centre.
Inspired by the brief of The Selby Trust and Haringey Council to create Selby Urban Village, our masterplan design and vision for the Selby Centre has been influenced by their collective community aims and a programme of sustained engagement with local residents, stakeholders, local sports groups and the mix of 35+ third sector/community organisations who will continue to use the facilities.
The new Selby Centre is located at the focal point of the masterplan will consolidate extensive community and sports facilities for The Selby Trust for the first time into a landmark building designed to encourage collaboration between the brilliant mix of activities within. To ensure running costs for The Selby Trust are affordable and to help Haringey Council achieve their targets to be net-zero carbon, a number of passive energy and cooling measures have been incorporated into the design including naturally ventilated spaces and a thermally efficient building envelope.
Located alongside the large and formerly under-utilised Bull Lane Playing Fields, the centre’s spacious ground floor entrance will allow activity to spill out into rejuvenated, bio-diverse park landscape featuring community growing/ play spaces alongside an exciting programme of sports and leisure including a basketball court and a full-size 3G football pitch which marks the entrance to this transformed open space. Pedestrian and cycle routes throughout this recreational landscape will feed into primary north-south and east-west neighbourhood routes which establish important connections between previously disconnected areas and improve access to the park and new community uses on offer.
Selby Urban Village is an exemplar of how a local authority and the third-sector can work together to develop ambitious briefs and deliver shared goals that benefit local people. It has been fantastic to work with the council, the trust and local people in Haringey over the past three years to develop the project, and we look forward to continuing to support the community’s vision.