Stratford, London | Major Residential Redevelopment
The Project
IQL North is a major mixed-use development in Stratford that will deliver 960 new homes alongside 900 student homes, creating a new neighbourhood within the wider International Quarter London.
Origin Consult has supported Hadley Property Group from the procurement stage through planning and into delivery, helping to shape the project’s communications, community engagement and social impact approach.
Our role has centred on ensuring that local communities don’t have to wait until the development is complete to experience its benefits; creating opportunities, partnerships and spaces that generate value throughout the development journey.
Building relationships from the outset
Origin supported Hadley in developing relationships with local community organisations, helping to understand local priorities and shape the community elements of the emerging development.
Alongside communications and engagement through the planning process, we worked with local partners to identify opportunities for social impact that responded directly to the area and the people who live and work there.
This approach helped establish the foundations for a programme of meanwhile uses, bringing a vacant development site into community use long before construction of the permanent scheme.
Turning a vacant site into a community asset
Rather than allowing the site to remain unused while the development progressed, Origin supported Hadley in developing a phased meanwhile strategy that created space for local organisations, businesses and community activity.
The first phase introduced The Lighthouse and Gardens, a community wellbeing centre, alongside a nomadic community garden. These spaces brought health, wellbeing, nature and community activity onto the site and began establishing IQL North as a place for the surrounding community rather than simply a future development.
The next phase expanded the programme with a broader mix of community and commercial uses, including:
- Outdoor saunas, broadening the site’s health and wellbeing offer.
- A training facility for ex-offenders led by Elite Project Services, creating pathways into skills and employment.
- A second El Cafecito café, enabling an existing local business based opposite the development to expand onto the site.
From meanwhile to permanent
The meanwhile programme was never intended to be a temporary activity that disappeared when construction began.
Origin supported Hadley in developing a meanwhile-to-permanent approach, identifying successful uses and partnerships that could form part of the completed development.
Elements of the community garden are planned to be incorporated into the permanent scheme, while The Lighthouse and Gardens will continue its work as part of the new Good Growth Hub provision within the completed development.
This creates a direct line between the relationships and activities established during planning and the long-term social infrastructure of the new neighbourhood.
“Meanwhile wasn’t treated as the space between planning and development. It became a testing ground for the future community.”
Measuring the impact
Alongside delivery, Origin produced a comprehensive Social Value Report capturing the impact generated during the planning phase.
Using the Thrive social value measurement tool, we combined quantitative measurement with qualitative evidence to demonstrate both the value created and the experiences behind the numbers.
Rather than relying solely on financial proxies and outputs, the report brought together data, stories and lived experiences to provide a fuller picture of the project’s impact to date and establish a baseline for future delivery.
Download the IQL North Social Value Report
The Impact
IQL North demonstrates how social impact can begin years before a development is completed.
Through early engagement, local partnerships and purposeful meanwhile use, a vacant site has supported community wellbeing, local enterprise, employment and skills, and new community spaces while simultaneously informing what will become part of the permanent neighbourhood.
For Origin, the project demonstrates what can happen when social impact is embedded across the entire development lifecycle – from procurement and planning through to delivery and legacy.