Arundel Square

The Arundel Square project has not only preserved and rejuvenated an existing public open space, the project has also created an additional acre of new land by decking over an adjacent railway cutting. Islington is the London borough with the least public open space, so that every addition that can be made to that space adds obvious potential benefit for the whole community. Not only has the building of the deck almost doubled the available open space of the square, but new homes have also been created (reflecting the public/ private mix of housing already on the square). Arundel Square provides a template for development which brings real community benefits, and pioneers new ideas for the making of new public space and building of new homes.

Arundel Square is sited within an area of Islington characterized by elegant nineteenth-century terraces forming squares around public gardens. Arundel Square should have been just such a square, but the Victorian developer ran out of money and the North London Line was constructed in a cutting on the south side of the gardens, leaving the square incomplete.

In 2005 PTE Architects instigated the radical idea to deck over the railway cutting, to both extend the public garden and finally complete the Square with a fourth side of housing. Construction of the deck and building were completed in 2009. In 2007 remapp landscape architects were appointed by London Borough of Islington to lead the design and community engagement process: to resolve the public realm elements of the project, and the complex integration of the concrete slab with the public garden. The construction period was completed between 2009 and 2010.