St George in the East Place Champions +

Working with the community in Shadwell to get the best from redevelopment plans, improve local streets and green spaces and work towards delivering community led homes

Since 2019 we have been working, alongside the Centre for Theology and Community, with the community in Shadwell to help empower them to positively influence their local area. This culminated in a community led masterplan for the area around St George in the East Church, including delivery of community led homes for local people.

The project was awarded further funding in 2020 to help deliver this vision, and again 2023 to allow us to continue to support the community so they can:

Deliver truly affordable community-led, family homes in a heritage context

Create a greener, safer, cleaner, and more walkable neighbourhood through incremental improvements to streets and green spaces

Positively influence the council’s redevelopment of the St George’s Leisure Centre

Our key focus has been assisting the group, who are now known as St George’s Neighbourhood Action Team, in having a genuine input into the design of the new leisure centre and improvements to St George’s Gardens. We have helped run engagement events, surveys, and workshops and provided technical advice.

The story of the community’s action will be enshrined in an artwork to be displayed at the new leisure centre.

We have funding until 2025 to support the group in their efforts to secure a better future for St George in the East. You can read about the story so far in this pamphlet.

Over the last two years our efforts have focused on improvements to local streets, working with the council to find a solution to the lack of bins, and we have helped secure a Breathe London ‘node’ which allows community to monitor local air quality and build action around improving it.

The community’s efforts culminated in an event at the Town Hall in March 2024 where seven local schools had the opportunity to ask the Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Members to commit to delivering affordable housing for families and to improving play and sports facilities at the new leisure centre, including a water slide!

Watch the 2019 online co-design session for the project:

This project has been kindly supported by the Trust for London