Euston, located in Central London, has been undergoing regeneration aimed at transforming the area into a modern transport and community destination, providing a new piece of city that delivers new homes, creates new jobs and open space. However, the project has faced significant delays and challenges with coordination of the various projects that will enable development. Euston’s pilot is aimed at ‘leveraging temporary uses to demonstrate and bring forward the benefits of inclusive, equitable and regenerative development’.

/meanwhile missions

Arts, Culture & Heritage

Celebrate and elevate the culture and heritage of Euston. It concentrated on organising interactive community workshops to preserve local history and heritage, and arts-led enhancement of public spaces in Regents Park Estate.

Collaborative & Circular Economy & Enterprise

Reinvigorate Euston’s local economy by focusing on social and circular enterprises. This included organising workshops and enterprise programs to foster entrepreneurship, revitalising the historic Chalton Street Market and establishing a Circular Enterprise Hub.

Safe & Convivial Streets and Spaces

Enhance the safety and appeal of Euston’s public areas. This included the creation of a Story Trail to link green spaces and narrate local history and the organisation of community festivals to foster engagement.

/Prototypes

DIGITAL ARCHIVING: Relating to Arts Culture and Heritage

The pilot narrative provides an overview of processes related to arts, culture, and heritage in community projects in Euston and Somers Town. It details the collaboration between The People's Museum and the Digital Markers team in promoting the STEAM agenda, which combines science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics to support local culture and heritage, alongside enrichment activities with local schools. The People's Museum played a pivotal role in preserving local working-class memory and heritage, including creating digital trails to document and commemorate lost artworks. Community groups like The People's Museum also led efforts in digital archiving and creating augmented reality heritage trails.

DIGITAL ARCHIVING

CIRCULAR MARKET: Relating to Collaborative & Circular Economy & Enterprise

The prototyping activities relating to economy and enterprise underscore the importance of focusing on the local economy, circular economy, reuse, and recycling. Key to these initiatives was the collaboration with local structures like the Somers Town Community Association, The People's Museum, Think & Do, and Our Little Markets CIC. The narrative demonstrates the necessity of genuinely helping people overcome barriers to progress in employment or enterprise, stressing the value of collaborative work among individuals with diverse skills but shared passions.

circular market

STORY TRAIL: Relating to Safe & Convivial Streets and Spaces

The Story Trail project involved several key processes centred around community engagement and collaboration. The project encompassed a variety of pop-up events, aimed at sharing the initiative with the local community and gathering residents' stories. This was coupled with a call for artists to commission new public artworks, where artists were invited to co-create the Story Trail in collaboration with the community. The development of the Story Trail as a resident-led public art and wayfinding trail established a network of relationships among residents, partners, and local councils, fostering a collaborative approach essential for addressing local needs.

story trail

/Pilot emerging themes

Collaborative Community Engagement

The pilot emphasises the significance of working together with community organisations and recognising their contributions. Such collaboration leverages local insights and bolsters community groups. The narratives highlight the benefits of forming close partnerships with these organisations, drawing on their deep understanding and connections within the community. Utilising this local expertise allows projects to genuinely engage with residents. Additionally, nurturing these local groups fosters the development of initiatives that are both authentic and organically driven.

Financial Transparency and Allocation

This pilot prominently features dialogues about funding, clear resource allocation, and the importance of making sure residents comprehend the tangible benefits. Although residents might display a lack of concern regarding funding sources, the necessity for continuous and explicit communication is emphasised. Successful integration of projects hinges on clearly established financial routes, with any redundancy or overlap potentially diminishing the efficiency and worth of community initiatives.

Project Challenges and Elasticity

The pilot narratives underscore the complexities and obstacles faced in project implementation, stressing the need for adaptability in managing the diverse interests of stakeholders. Community projects encountered various challenges, ranging from aligning with residents’ expectations to balancing the needs of different stakeholders.

Continuous Learning and Adaptation

The focus is on iterative processes, ongoing education, and the significance of refining community initiatives based on insights gained from each phase. The pilot portrayed an adaptive approach to community engagement, where strategies were flexible and continually fine-tuned in response to real-world feedback and challenges. By emphasising the value of learning from each activity, the pilot underscored the importance of prototyping, iterating, and optimising strategies.

Value of Visible Outcomes

The pilot emphasised the importance of delivering visible and tangible results, such as public art installations or market stalls, to foster trust and sustained community involvement. These physical manifestations not only symbolised real progress but also served as key catalysts for ongoing engagement and trust within the community. The community’s respect for the projects, as demonstrated by the care shown towards unvandalized storyboards and the valued Makerspace, reflected their appreciation for tangible benefits. These concrete outcomes solidified the commitment to the community, recognised their contributions, and encouraged further participation.

Cultural Heritage and Community Identity

The focus on preserving and celebrating local heritage, along with nurturing community identity, emerged as a prominent theme. Initiatives such as those by the People’s Museum in Somers Town ‘A Space for us?” highlighted the need to and significance of maintaining community identity, cultural memory and the area’s sense of place and identity amidst the threat posed to this by development. The commitment to restitute, document and digitise important local assets, particularly lost artworks of historical value, represented a conscious effort to maintain and value local identity and its past even as the community evolved.

Strategic Future Vision

The pilot outlined a vision for the future, centring on creating lasting benefits for communities and improving existing initiatives. Both community and project leaders showed a dedication to addressing immediate concerns while also laying strong, long-term foundations. Leveraging the T-Factor pilot to bridge disparities and integrating various projects for residents, the pilot placed a strong emphasis on future planning. By aligning immediate actions with future aspirations, it consistently ensured that current activities were in line with the community’s desired future.

Synergy and Alignment

The pilot at Euston highlighted the importance of harmonising diverse activities. It focused on integrating various projects to prevent overlap and competition, instead fostering mutual enhancement for the community’s benefit. The program stressed the importance of collaboration, aiming to unite diverse stakeholders’ strengths and objectives for a common goal. This included aligning T-Factor activities with existing community projects and residents’ aspirations with community organisations.