Gender-informed design shaping the future of Holloway Park

A new report has highlighted how women’s voices are helping to shape the future of Holloway Park, ensuring the development is more inclusive, safe, and responsive to everyday life.

Commissioned by Peabody and delivered by Social Place and In Her Place, the Gender Mainstreaming Holloway Park project brought together a diverse group of local women and non-binary people as community researchers. Through workshops, site visits, and lived-experience research, participants explored how the design of streets, homes, and public spaces can better reflect how people actually use them.

Working closely with project architects Maccreanor Lavington and Exterior Architecture, their insights have directly informed the design of the development – from improving lighting and safety, to rethinking play spaces, walking routes and everyday features like cycle storage and bin areas.

Notably, this is one of the first projects of its kind in the UK to embed a gender-informed approach into the design of a major new neighbourhood. It builds on Holloway’s unique history as the former women’s prison, placing women’s experiences at the heart of its future.

You can read the full report here: