Clarendon Yards is an innovative new community and cultural centre that will open in Wood Green this summer, bringing artists, entrepreneurs and hospitality operators together to thrive under one roof in north London’s newest creative hot spot.
Located just off Coburg Road in the heart of Wood Green’s existing creative quarter, Clarendon Yards will feature a bustling street food market, an outdoor bar and yard, a hop garden, events and performance space, community allotments and more than 40,000 square foot of affordable creative workspace.
Clarendon Yards comprises five large inter-connected warehouse units, three ancillary raised office blocks and numerous outdoor areas at what was the Olympia Trading Estate. Over the coming months a phased interior refurbishment plan will be rolled out and the buildings will benefit from a striking, colourful exterior makeover too.
The first tenants are already on site and fully operational. Goodwin & Goodwin is a leading creative sign making company who relocated to Clarendon Yards from their previous space at Wood Green’s Chocolate Factory in March. Existing local business Turnaround Publisher Services sought to retain their operations in Wood Green and has taken space at Clarendon Yards alongside many new enterprises keen to put down roots in the area. These enterprises include Street Feast, London’s pre-eminent street food and night market operator, and The Goodness Brewery & Tap – a new microbrewery set up by three Wood Green locals that will make ales and sell them in the taproom.
Clarendon Yards is the latest project from social entrepreneur Nick Hartwright, a sustainable regeneration expert who already has strong ties to Wood Green and the London borough of Haringey. In addition to Green Rooms, the artists’ hotel he opened on Station Road in the summer of 2016, Hartwright has five thriving shared workspace sites in the locale.
For Clarendon Yards Hartwright has received significant funding from the Greater London Authority’s Good Growth Fund and the reanimation of the site is part of a wider Haringey Council led bid. ‘Connecting Wood Green’ was one of just 27 successful schemes from an entry list of more than 200.
Clarendon Yards is indicative of a new sustainable form of regeneration. Developer St William owns the circa 12-acre site which in the future will include 1,714 studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, 100,000 square foot of commercial space, a new public square, landscaped courtyards and improved connectivity between the surrounding neighbourhoods of Hornsey and Alexandra Park. St William is working closely with Hartwright and his team to ensure the businesses that take space at Clarendon Yards proposer and grow.
Commenting on the impending opening of Clarendon Yards, Nick Hartwright said: “Clarendon Yards is going to be quite a place. There’s a lack of diversity in Wood Green right now in terms of hospitality outlets and places for people to go in the evenings. There’s also a scarcity of events and performance space, and a lack of affordable workspace for creative enterprises and SMEs. So in the first instance we’re addressing all of these things.
The strategy for Clarendon Yards represents a new model for sustainable, long-term urban regeneration. St William has provided great insight and we’re thrilled to be working with them on the project. Together, we’re ensuring Wood Green flourishes with business success stories, enabling new start-ups and bringing in exciting, established companies who will enhance the local offering.”
Sean Ellis, Chairman for St William said: “We are very excited to be working with Nick Hartwright and the team to deliver Clarendon Yards. We envisage that it will not only become an exciting maker space for start-ups and small businesses, but that it will provide growth for the long-term and help to put Clarendon’s north London cultural quarter on the map.”
