Open City Accelerate 2026

In early 2026 Periscope was commissioned by Merton Council as part of the Mayor of London’s High Street Place Labs programme to produce a local high street strategy for Mitcham Town Centre. We partnered with the ‘Omnibus’, who run a youth centre on Fridays in Mitcham, and Attic, a local theatre company, to deliver a range of engagement activities catering to different age groups and interests.

Image credit © 2026 Studio Augusto ⁠

In mid-June some of our team went adventuring in the Lea Valley to visit Meridian Water where Brooks Park and Edmonton Marshes are nearing completion. We also visited the new V&A East and several recent bridges.

We're been appointed by Norwich City Council and Homes England alongside Haworth Tompkins and Hudson Architects to deliver new homes at Carrow Works.

We are genuinely delighted to announce Marilena Barmpalia's promotion to Senior Architect. Marilena has been working with Periscope for the past eight years, establishing herself as a key team member and one who has led visioning, research, masterplanning, detailed and technical design. She has also recently been appointed to the Haringey and Havering Design Review Panels in London.

This week the Mayor of London published the Old Oak development framework.⁠ We've been working alongside Gort Scott and Allies & Morrison for nearly four years to develop this work which will guide the future development of thousands of homes and new employment space around Old Oak Common HS2 station.
⁠
Image by Gort Scott in digital media.

The first two projects proposed as part of Camden's New Homes for Small Sites Programme have received planning approval. Periscope worked together with Jas Bhalla Works and Mikhail Riches for Camden Council to support the design of 28 new affordable homes on Highgate Road and Raglan Street. ⁠

Four years in the making for Latimer and three years after winning the competition our Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community masterplan has been submitted for planning. The proposal emphasises long-term public benefit, infrastructure provision and place stewardship, demonstrating how a housing association can create a purpose-led community - marrying design ambition and viability, while aligning with the principles of the New Towns Taskforce.⁠

Find out more via the BBC, Observer and Architects Journal and on our projects pages here.

Our five year project to film the strategic infrastructure works continues at Meridian Water. As winter comes to a close the new parks are already functioning as flood attenuation and ecological recovery is ongoing with over 1000 trees planted.

Our project in Hemel Hempstead with TOWN and The Crown Estate has been submitted for planning. The scheme brings together two housing models: a cohousing community designed with its future residents, and high-quality homes for rent. Homes will be arranged in clusters around shared gardens, play spaces, green routes and a central public square.

Image Credit: Darcstudio

This week we’re in Kiruna, Sweden attending the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) Congress. This year is the 50^th Anniversary of the committee’s foundation in 1975 and Periscope is presenting its work on the adaption of Port Talbot Steelworks.

Find out more here

Last year Periscope collaborated with MACE to deliver a town centre masterplan framework for Tonbridge. The work included developing urban strategies and housing capacity tests for vacant land/car parking sites in the town centre, forging better connections to the high street, siting a new leisure centre and addressing fluvial flooding across the town.

Too often regeneration is something done to communities, rather than with them. But what if we took a different approach? At a time of intense housing pressure, the Ilford Arrival project takes that step, putting local people at the centre of decision-making, empowering girls and young women in a co-client model.

Find out more via BBC and Evening Standard and on our project page here.

Construction continues over at Meridian Water to deliver infrastructure for all life.⁠ The Ministry of Homes Communities & Local Government funded Strategic Infrastructure Works are being delivered by Taylor Woodrow. With bulk earthworks now well underway the coming months will see bridge beams installed and river wall works commence in preparation for the Pymmes Brook channel diversion into Brooks Park.⁠

Find out more about Brooks Park and Edmonton Marshes, the two new parks at the centre of the project.

This July Microscope will host CHASING WATER; the London launch and exhibition of ETH Zurich’s DELUS Journal for Landscape and Urbanism Studies.

Join us on the opening Thurs 3rd July 6-9pm for drinks, conversation and a talk with the DELUS team. The journal will be available for purchase on the night.

RSVP to microscope@periscope.uk.

Want to learn how we're recovering a quarry which has been a cement works and then a landfill site into a piece of public landscape infrastructure containing life sciences? Daniel Rea will be joining colleagues from @hawkins_brown and 3PM along with⁠ our client Mission Street at Footprint+ this Thursday. Find out more here.

Image in digital media by Secchi Smith⁠.

⁠

Last week some of the Periscope team headed over to Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) in Lewisham to lend a hand with the construction of their new self-build playground. Working with Unit38, we prepped trenches for play equipment, shifted gravel, painted sleepers for the feasting table and readied timber posts for the pull-up bar and swing!

We've been selected by The Crown Estate alongside TOWN to develop an engagement-led masterplan for 80 new homes on the edge of Hemel Hempstead. Periscope is the lead consultant, landscape architect and masterplanner, collaborating with Archio, Mole, Expedition Engineering, Urban Movement and Introba.

Image Credit: Archio/TOWN

This February we had the chance to welcome two brilliant students, Shaima and Taejah, to our office as part of the Open City Education Accelerate Programme. Their project theme was Together, translating their thoughts around this into the design of a kiosk which might welcome the local community.

What a year, its been bumpy and energy giving in equal measure! We wish every one of our followers, friends, collaborators and clients a happy 2025.⁠

Our Christmas charities this year have been Shelter and Hackney Hight Shelter, any help you can give too would be sincerely appreciated.

If you’d like to download a digital copy of our yearbook, please follow the link here.

-Dan & the Periscope Team⁠

The strategic infrastructure works at Meridian Water have started on site. Streets, drainage, earthworks, bridges and parks funded by £195m from the Ministry of Homes Communities & Local Government are being delivered by Taylor Woodrow will provide the development platform for at least 5000 homes.⁠ Periscope has designed two green spaces, Brooks Park and Edmonton Marshes at the core of the project.