Futurecity developed a Cultural & Placemaking Strategy for New Covent Garden Market, one of London’s most important working markets and a key component of the wider Nine Elms regeneration. The strategy set out a long-term vision to ensure the redevelopment strengthened the Market’s operational role while establishing a distinctive cultural identity rooted in food, making and everyday public life.

Responding to the complexity of transforming a live wholesale market, the strategy embedded culture across architecture, landscape and public realm from the earliest stages. It positioned New Covent Garden Market as “London’s Kitchen, London’s Dining Room”, celebrating its heritage of production, trade and innovation while opening up new ways for the public to engage with the site.

The framework proposed integrated art and design commissions, artist-led wayfinding and lighting, and a strong emphasis on food culture, ecology, play and learning. A meanwhile activation programme was developed to animate the site during construction, alongside partnership models that connected traders, cultural organisations, education providers and surrounding communities.

Together, the strategy provided a practical roadmap for delivering culture at scale, influencing planning, design and long-term stewardship, and establishing New Covent Garden Market as a working place with a clear civic and cultural role within the evolving Nine Elms district.

Site render via BDP, photography by NCGM, EG Focus and Matt Brown