NewmanFrancis were commissioned by Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture (CLTH) to work alongside Haringey Council as engagement consultants on the Your Bruce Grove project.
The Bruce Grove area presents opportunities and challenges. Those key challenges include high levels of deprivation, anti-social behaviour and crime, which undermines the sense of safety and the visitor experience. The feedback provided to the Council made It clear that for the project to succeed it should prioritise the needs of the existing community to ensure that the ambitions of local people of all ages and backgrounds are at the core of the future of Bruce Grove.
NewmanFrancis delivered a bespoke engagement programme over a 2-month period between June and July 2023.
Our role on the project was to find out the key priorities of the local community for RIBA stages 0-1 to feed into the design proposals for the wider area improvement of Bruce Grove e.g. streets, spaces, public realm, the expansion of the local market and new housing and workspace.
A key aspect of the engagement strategy was the involvement of a group of young community researchers (from local schools and colleges), who were capacity built to carry out street interviews and support the facilitation of the thematic workshops.
As part of our role, we carried out focussed engagement with a wide cross section of the community including local residents, visitors, a large number of local businesses, and stakeholders (e.g. local service providers, community organisations and RAs). High levels of engagement were achieved with under-represented and hard to reach groups.
This was achieved through a range of engagement methods, including:
• Pop ups in various key hotspots in the Bruce Grove area (e.g. station, market)
• Thematic workshops which looked at various design and social value aspects (e.g. access/travel, environment, spaces for the community, local economy)
• Focussed workshops with young people and children, at the local Youth Centre and Primary School.
• Business Focus Group to explore business priorities and their servicing and operational requirements
• Focussed engagement with older people, through local community lunches, and engagement with local residents in a supported living block.
• Targeted door knocking with residents who live on and adjacent to the project area.
• A range of outreach and community conversations including surveys with community groups, including visitors, local residents, businesses in the project area, and stakeholder groups.
• Digital engagement via the Commonplace online engagement platform, with content and surveys translated into the main community languages, and which also featured an interactive digital map.
• Attractive Your Bruce Grove project branding, including on street advertising – e.g. lamppost wraps and banners in community languages. This helped raise awareness of the project and create a buzz.
Key outcomes from our engagement delivery included:
• High levels of engagement achieved with a wide cross section of the community in line with the local census make-up of the area (e.g. age groups, ethnic groups, socio-economic status)
• Generally, very good levels of engagement achieved with some of the hard-to-reach groups, including young people, BAME groups, vulnerable residents.
• High levels of engagement & participation achieved through in-person engagement activities – 1561 engagements were made throughout a range of engagement activities over the course of the 9-week engagement period. 1051 of these engagements were through in person engagement, and 510 of these engagements were online via Commonplace.
• Productive working relationships built with the community.
• High levels of engagement with a range of local businesses in the area - 80 businesses were interviewed.
• High levels of engagement with young people - 72 children engaged during the primary school workshops.
• High numbers of participation at the thematic workshops – 65 attendees across 4 workshops at local venues in the Bruce Grove area.
We have been working with NewmanFrancis on a multimillion-pound project to improve streets and spaces in Bruce Grove, Tottenham. We were impressed with the diligence and care shown by the NewmanFrancis team in outreach and engagement activities, where they spoke with over 900 people over a two-month period, built positive relationships with the local community, and successfully encouraged a diverse mix of community members to get involved in the project. NewmanFrancis are a friendly and approachable team and bring great ideas for constructive community engagement.’ –
LB Haringey South Tottenham Regeneration Team
We developed a great partnership with NewmanFrancis to help deliver a series of public engagement events for Your Bruce Grove, a multi-million pound project to improve the streets and spaces in Tottenham.
Their whole team showed dedication to successfully organising, promoting, and running an intensive outreach and engagement activity programme. We appreciated their friendly and accessible approach from all members of the outreach and project teams.
We are continuing to work with Newman Francis on other projects and look forward to further successful events together. - Mark Attmore, Senior Architect (CLTH)
