Meanwhile Use in Brent
As part of the regeneration of the borough, the council looks to support the temporary use of land and buildings for
initiatives around training, business support, high streets and local community projects. Meanwhile projects fill the
pause in the development process before sites come forward for new homes, business or other uses. They are
temporary in nature – anything from a few weeks to a few years.
Some examples of projects to date:
South Kilburn Studios
provides
training opportunities to Brent residents with
creative businesses and local weekly events.
Some trainees have gone on to get full time
work elsewhere or start up their own business.
The studios are home to artists, musicians,
photographers, a milliner and an events
promotion company. It is also home to Clean
Bandit who spent five weeks at number one
in the music charts earlier this year.
In Willesden Green, the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund supported a series of projects along the high road
including
opening Metro Textiles at Queen’s Parade, Electric House next door and the excellent co-working space,
the Library Lab, in the former Willesden Library
.
Queen’s Parade is still going and houses a number of creative and
quirky businesses.
The Coming Soon Club
in Wembley was based on the Triangle and in a year grew its membership to 600 people
interested in using free space. The project supported many different ideas for businesses and community projects and has
helped businesses to start and grow, gained employment for people and facilitated networks to be formed. It moved up the
road to Cottrell House last year which provides events and affordable workspace.
