FAQ

Barking Town Centre was designated a ‘Housing Zone’ by the Mayor of London in February 2015. The aim of a Housing Zone is to significantly increase supply to help meet the Borough’s and London’s increasing housing demands. Vicarage Field will deliver over 900 homes, all of which will meet the height, size and density standards set out by the London Plan.

The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham has granted outline permission for over 900 homes, ranging from studio’s to 3-bedroom apartments.

As part of the planning process, we undertook a full environmental assessment to help us identify any noise/air pollution measures that need to be taken. The project team is keen to demonstrate environmental and social responsibility and believe the proposals will create healthy living environments for all occupants and visitors through vastly improved green and open spaces.

The shopping centre will be fully redeveloped and deliver a vibrant new mix of high-quality units fit for modern needs as well as key anchor tenants, complemented by a wider offering of flexible workspace, fitness and leisure operators.

With the retail industry in the midst  of large-scale change, we are very open minded about the types of established and emerging brands who can contribute to a re-energised town centre offer. With the type, range and service offering of shops and stores rapidly evolving, the nature and style of the customer experience  will be pre-eminent in curating the scheme’s content.  With demand for quality housing and new workspace in Barking too, we feel there is an ideal opportunity to add new vitality to the tenant mix and customer offering.

All of the existing tenants in the Shopping Centre are aware of the redevelopment and, where possible, we will be helping businesses to find alternative premises before the 2022 construction start date.

Food and beverage, especially relaxed casual dining for families and young professionals is very much part of our aspirations for the customer offer. We see the development helping to establish a safe, welcoming and highly enjoyable evening experience in Barking town centre, stimulating interest in all its social and cultural facilities. Flexible co-working space will also be a prominent feature of the plans bringing an additional consumer group that will contribute to increasing footfall. Alongside larger operators we are also looking to work with some of the most innovative and exciting independent food operators in London to add to the local culinary scene.

Opportunities to lease or rent are still some way off, but you can register your interest by emailing: newvicaragefield@londoncommunications.co.uk

The City of London’s ambition to consolidate and relocate their wholesale markets to Dagenham Dock presents a great opportunity for Vicarage Field to develop a best-in-class food offer to local residents and visitors to the town centre. We are very much aligned with the Council’s vision for the Town Centre to be a place known for its healthy, high quality food offer and intend to explore provision of a unique and transformational food hub. As well as an exciting customer offer, this will become place for food entrepreneurs to set up businesses, developing and testing their products or experimenting with new ideas in collaboration with other businesses.

As part of the redevelopment we are looking to provide a mix of workspaces for commercial and social use. We see this being primarily delivered through co-working space, which we think best responds to local demand from SME’s, young professionals and students, as well as giving local entrepreneurs and start-ups alike a base to grow. We are open to hearing about what other kinds of space could be brought through as part of our overall workspace offer. Opportunities to lease or rent are still some way off, but you can register your interest by emailing newvicaragefield@londoncommunications.co.uk

Our proposals include space for a new cinema offering as part of the development. Depending on the way in which the cinema industry rebounds post-Pandemic we would envisage a mainstream operator taking the space for a family orientated programme across multiple screens and supporting a range of restaurants nearby for casual dining. We feel that the leisure proposals for the scheme are sufficiently flexible to respond to customer trends and will help bring further investment and footfall to the town centre, to the benefit of all surrounding businesses and traders.

The arts and music venue will be flexible, multi-use, with the entrance located on the first floor near the restaurants and cinema to contribute to the new leisure destination. It will complement the Broadway Theatre and provide a flexible space for local artists of all disciplines to run workshops, educate and exhibit. PineBridge Benson Elliot and Londonewcastle were previously engaged in another scheme in London where a similar venue was proposed and we looked to local interest groups to assist in the design and operation of the venue. We anticipate a similar process here.

The hotel will have up to 150 rooms and will be positioned in the centre of the development overlooking the main public space.

The development allows for a wellbeing clinic to be located on the corner of Vicarage Drive and Ripple Road. The exact size, configuration and timescales for provision of this facility are subject to consultation with local stakeholders.

We are proposing a mixture of publicly and privately accessible open spaces. The entire ground and first floors will be open to the public with feature seating areas and landscaping. Trees and foliage will also line the first-floor walkway to help create a green quality to the shopping and leisure experience. A separate field level will also be accessible to residents as an amenity space.