The much anticipated Berkeley Group’s Parkside Yards at The Green Quarter has held its opening launch with an all-day summer event featuring screen printing, craft workshops, live music and entertainment.
Marcus Blake, managing director of Berkeley St George City, commented: “The launch of Parkside Yards was a fantastic day and the turnout exceeded expectations with almost 1,500 people joining us to eat, meet, drink, shop and play amongst green surroundings. The live music, craft classes and nature workshops are just a taste of what is to come at Parkside Yards.
Mr Blake added: “We hope to announce new retailers over the coming months to add to the superb set of independent operators who are already open daily at The Green Quarter.”
In May, EALING.NEWS spoke to Mandie White who has run OPEN Ealing for over a decade and will be one of the key anchor partners of Parkside Yards with Open Southall. The new community hub is aimed for creatives of all ages and experience to make and sell ceramics, screenprints, textiles and fashion.
The new OPEN Southall commitment to ceramics pays tribute to the Martin Brothers, famous for their Martinware ceramics. The four Martin brothers moved their studio from Fulham to Southall in 1877 and worked out of much larger premises in Havelock Road.
As well as a home for creatives, OPEN Southall will be used to stage events and showcase creativity.
In the run-up to its launch, Open Southall ran a crowdfunding campaign to purchase equipment for people to use for their creative projects.
Mandie Wilde, chief operating officer of OPEN said: “This is an exciting step forward for OPEN and provides local and affordable community studios for creatives wanting to develop their practise in ceramics and textiles. It’s also a great place for beginners to learn new skills.”
The Green Quarter developers, Berkeley Group, say that with Parkside Yards, it is creating: “a vibrant new hub, bringing communities together through an exciting arts programme, flexible working spaces, and an outdoor piazza at its heart offering opportunities to eat, meet, drink, shop and play against the backdrop of green surroundings.”
The Green Quarter development has been built on land that was once known as Southall Gasworks. Locals living near the area, previously marketed as Southall Waterside, have raised health concerns about the development of the brownfield land but the developer says it has been remediated.
Berkeley Group says of The Green Quarter: “is one of the biggest regeneration projects in West London that is transforming sites into a sustainable, unique and nature-rich place where communities thrive.”
The Green Quarter offers a range of 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments and will also be releasing 3 bedroom townhouses.
When fully completed, nearly half of the 88-acre site on The Green Quarter will be open green space.
As well as OPEN Southall, Parkside Yards will also include a cafe and stores as well as a woodland trail, tree nursery and children’s play area.
There will also be an on-site tree nursery said to be one of the first on a UK development that will start with over 600 air-potted trees with more planned. The woodland nature trail for children will run through the green space and feature carved wooden animal statues.
Berkeley Group also revealed that while the majority of trees being grown in the Parkside Yards nursery will be planted at The Green Quarter, the trees will also be used at other Berkeley developments across London.
