Hackney Marshes

Adjacent to the Olympic Park within the Lee Valley, Hackney Marshes is a huge open grass space containing 100 full size football pitches bordered on the east and west by the rich ecology of the River Lea and River Lea Navigation. It has a fascinating history, with historic lammas rights of grazing between harvests up to World War II, when the area was filled in and leveled using bomb rubble from the East End. With the post-war policy to encourage sport the site was turned into a vast training ground, and has become very important to grass roots football in London.

I carried out an access study in order to integrate the individual projects in the area – the new North Marsh Sports Pavilion, two new bridges over the River Lea and Lea Navigation, the entrance from Homerton Road and the access to the new Hackney Marshes Centre on the South Marsh.

The proposed wayfinding uses the concept of the grey-green shift between urban and rural - and aims to bring the countryside back into the city. Signage will identify your position in the Lee Valley, and within both the urban context and the ecological features of the marshes.  The aim is to improve landscape legibility.

Whilst at Kinnear Landscape Architects  -  2012  -  Hackney, London  -  Client: London Borough of Hackney  -  Value: £600k  -  Size: 120ha