Millwall Football Club Training Ground, West Kingsdown
West Kingsdown, Sevenoaks
| Developer/Landlord | Millwall Football Club |
|---|---|
| Architect | AFL |
| Employers Representative | Selby Projects |
| Engineer | Manhire Associates and Herrington Consulting |
| Landscape Architect | EDLA |
EDLA was commissioned to design landscape architecture proposals and provide strategic landscape architecture advice, LVIA and Landscape Design for a new training ground for Millwall FC in West Kingsdown, Sevenoaks. The facility will enable the Club to expand its community outreach work and support its path to the Premier League. The Site is within the Metropolitan Green Belt.
The site, in the past 150 years, has seen many agricultural uses and iterations. From ancient woodland to common land, to orchards and growing hops, to arable farming and grazing land – the site has seen itself evolve and adapt along with the needs of the times. The result is that many shapes, uses, and boundaries have been created and lost over time, creating a rich tapestry of layers – historical, ecological and social.
Our landscape vision for the site follows careful consideration of the background studies to date. The vision is further guided by the findings of the site analysis, appraisal, and the opportunities and constraints that were identified during site visits. Our strategic landscape advice inputted on, amongst many things, building positioning as well as landscape mitigation addressing landscape character and visual impact.
The highlights of our landscape proposal include:
- The creation of site-wide green/blue corridors connecting the surrounding landscape and existing hedgerows, ecological corridors
and ditches.
New west/east woodland to screen development in the northern part of the Site.
3. The creation of a distinctive entrance gateway into the site.
4. A sweeping approach road.
5. A curvaceous landscape response that sits comfortably in its setting.
6. The use of interlocking mounding/terraces with planting and trees.
7. Utilisation of existing flint on-site to create gabion retaining wall feature.
The high quality of the landscape design was recognised by the Local Authority, who identified this as one of the very special circumstances in the case for developing within the Green Belt.
