Didcot Garden Town | Oxfordshire

Didcot in Oxfordshire was granted Garden Town Status in 2015 to transform and grow the existing town by an additional 15,000 homes and 20,000 jobs. It was a transitional moment for a former railway and industrial town, defined by the giant power station that once dominated the skyline, to a hi-tech, greener future.

Novell Tullett was part of the masterplanning team that produced a landscape-led, vision document and delivery plan to integrate housing and infrastructure with environmental protection and extensive new green space.

Our work included a detailed analysis of existing landscape features, open space, designations and connectivity to see where improved links and new space were needed. We also collated information about multiple independent planning applications to understand the overall impact and needs of new communities, and the existing town, and looked at how to protect surrounding villages from being subsumed within Didcot by a ‘green buffer’.

The resulting plan brought improvements to the town centre, which then connected outwards to all the new communities and offered alternative transport modes to the world-class science campuses on the periphery of town. New walking and cycle routes were integrated with play facilities, better water management and green spaces to encourage access to the nearby North Downs and River Thames. The masterplan is currently being implemented beginning with a series of quick but high-impact projects. 

Architects: Grimshaws

• Green infrastructure strategy
• Landscape assessment
• Landscape and urban design of garden town
• Large scale movement strategy
• 15,000 new homes
• Regeneration of existing townscape.