To several generations of Londoners, Earls Court was best known for its legendary venue. From 1937 all the way up to 2014, Earls Court Exhibition Centre played host to everything from expos and the Olympics to gigs by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie.
Since the exhibition centre closed, Earls Court is now simply a Kensington district, an electoral ward and a tube stop. But it could soon see massive changes thanks to a vast development project. Plans have been revealed that could essentially see a new entire neighbourhood built in Earls Court.
Currently, the area is apparently central London’s largest cleared development site. The Earls Court Development Company (ECDC) says that the plan is to build 4,000 new homes (35 percent will apparently be affordable), 200,000 square feet of retail and leisure space and 2.5 million sqft of workspace.
Excitingly, the ECDC also proposes building three new venues, the largest of which will have space for at least 1,000 visitors. Sure, that might not be anywhere near the old Earls Court’s 20,000 capacity, but it’s something.
The development will supposedly be quite green, too. According to developers, 60 percent of the land will remain free from buildings, while 1,000 trees will be planted across the site. As always, it’s better to wait and see how these sort of big construction projects turn out before deciding whether they’re actually ‘green’ or not.
It’s worth noting that these most recent plans from the ECDC are more scaled-down than previous proposals. Back in February, the plans included more homes and less open spaces.
Interested in finding out more? Further details about the development are available on the ECDC website here.
London, ever-changing capital
This city is always seeing new projects claiming to revolutionise how Londoners live and work. In recent months alone, Time Out has covered truly massive projects like the Lewisham town centre revamp, a £1.3 billion housing development in Ladbroke Grove and the City of London getting 11 new skyscrapers by 2030.
Did you see that only four London boroughs saw property prices rise in 2023?
Plus: the ExCeL is getting a major makeover.
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