EMERGING LONDON 2018

MY LONDON “To create a place that’s vibrant we need to find really interesting retailers. That means working with the local community to source the best of the best producers and to nurture local heroes.” Matt Slade What is your favourite part of London? King’s Cross. Do you have a personal ‘hidden London’ location you’d like to share? Italia Uno – an authentic Italian café on Charlotte Street. There’s nothing polished about it, but the coffee and sandwiches are great and it’s a hidden gem for watching Italian cycling. Best location in London to shop for quirky gifts? Rapha shops in Spitalfields and Soho. The whole story of creating a cycle club from a shop is brilliant. Best location in London to eat? Social Wine & Tapas, St Christopher’s Place. Parts of London you’d like to explore more and why? South London – anywhere south of the river, really! I’d particularly like to get to Borough Market more often. What is your favoured form of transport around the capital? I have two road bikes. My favourite is a Ferrari-red Colnago. No doubt consulting with residents will also give an important steer on what they want. Matt Yes, our tenant engagement has led us to focus on how, from a design perspective, we can create social spaces that become an extension of people’s homes. For example, a bakery that does cookery classes or a bookshop that lays on presentations. If we just do a bland High Street we’re almost certain to fail. We have to create experiences. They can be small and intimate or large brand ones. Our aim is to achieve a roughly 50/50 balance between the two. Is that kind of thought process indicative of your wider approach to development? James We are estate managers as well as developers, which means we are also absorbed with the public realm here, and that occasionally leads to what some may say is obsessive attention to detail. For example, we have an in-house gardener who genuinely cares about the estate’s trees and the plants. At the moment he is creating a new tree-lined avenue, with each tree hand-picked to represent a different region of the world. Football fans may be interested to know that the trees in Arena Square have been deliberately chosen to only blossom around the FA Cup Final. At a glance – WEMBLEY PARK Quintain first bought into Wembley in 2002. Since the regeneration of both Wembley Stadium and the SSE Wembley Arena the investor/developer has been working on creating a new 8.8m sq ft commercial and residential district, including the 265,000 sq ft London Designer Outlet (opened in 2013), a total of 7,000 new homes, up to 1m sq ft of offices and 235,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space spread over 85 acres. Construction will continue in phases until 2027. And culture is also an important part of the mix. James Very much so. We want to preserve the heritage of sports and music at Wembley but at the same time round out the cultural offer with new components like London’s largest Boxpark and our new theatre, both of which will open in 2018, in addition to our new artist’s studios. We want to have small, intimate, interesting and quirky stuff going on, as well as big statements. How does it feel to be working on Wembley Park? Matt I’ve become involved in every aspect of life here. Personally, I love being able to see the house where my dad was born from some parts of the site. James It’s so much more than a job. As an obsessive music and sport fanWembley holds a special place in my heart as my first concert was David Bowie at the Arena in 1983. Social, Wine & Tapas 41 40 CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD  | EMERGING LONDON SPOTLIGHT ON WEMBLEY PARK