Bow Goods Yard

For Network Rail, we secured unanimous outline consent for a consolidated rail “super hub” and up to 190,000 m² of employment, industrial, and leisure space – intensifying SIL uses, enabling land release, and establishing a phased route to delivery.

• SIL + live operations → Consolidation-first strategy enabling land release.
• High-profile, multistakeholder site → Structured engagement and design review leading to unanimous approval.
• Fragmented operational footprint → Capacity consolidated; surplus NR land freed elsewhere in London.

Facts panel

• Location: Bow Goods Yard, Stratford (East London)
• Client: Network Rail
• Role: • Strategic brief (“Five Pillars”) • Development management • Town planning • Softmarket testing • Development appraisal (with Currie & Brown) • Transactions/Acquisitions (DB Cargo)
• Scale/Mix: ~28 acres; up to 190,000 m² floorspace (incl. ~39,000 m² heavy/light industrial; up to 32,000 m²destination leisure; ~3,000 m² F&B; ~5,000 m² sports pitches)
• Outcome: Unanimous resolution to grant outline planning permission; phased delivery route
• Team (Selected): • Simon Marks • David Mabb • Beth O’Sullivan • Samuel Blake • Ivan Moore • Luca Nardini  • Morgan Reece • Lucy Turner • Yasmin Darch

The Story

Bow Goods Yard is a 28-acre inner London site located south of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – designated Strategic Industrial Land with active rail freight, aggregate, and concrete operations. It represents the final major parcel to be unlocked as part of the 2012 Olympic Legacy. The opportunity was clear, but so were the constraints: on one hand, protect and intensify rail-served industry; on the other, deliver broader place-making, employment, and leisure benefits – all within a politically sensitive context.

Through conviction-led expertise and a collaborative, agile structure, we aligned planning, development management, and transactions around a single, testable idea: intensify and consolidate the rail and industrial uses first to justify releasing land for complementary employment and leisure. Together with the client team, we established five clear project aims (“Five Pillars”), forming the foundation for design, engagement, and commercial validation.

We co-led the masterplan and outline application within nine months, maintaining a disciplined client cadence to keep decisions progressing. This involved a town planning led design review and stakeholder engagement to de-risk the case for intensification and land release. In parallel, development appraisal, working with Currie & Brown, tested phasing, mix, and viability to ensure the scheme was both consentable and investable. Our transactions team supported the key leasehold acquisition from DB Cargo, enabling operational consolidation into a single Network Rail “super hub.” Flexibility was embedded into the masterplan to capture future market value and accommodate delivery partners over time.

Value unlocked

The scheme secured a unanimous resolution to grant outline planning permission, unlocking up to 190,000 m² of employment, industrial, and leisure floorspace. Consolidation into a bespoke Network Rail “super hub” intensifies onsite rail capacity and releases surplus Network Rail land elsewhere in London for alternative uses.
The freed land enables the creation of a new mixed-use destination, with connections across the Greenway into Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the potential to support up to 5,000 jobs across phased delivery. With consent in place, the project now has a credible, structured route to delivery – ready for procurement and partnership discussions.

Comment

“The released land will create a new destination for commercial and leisure uses that will assist in the activation and animation of the site and will create new links across the greenway into the Olympic Park. The masterplan also includes a new Network Rail ‘super hub’ that will consolidate Network Rail’s maintenance and operational floorspace from various sites in London into one bespoke ‘super hub’. This will free up surplus land elsewhere in London for alternative uses and will create up to 5,000 jobs.” – Simon Marks, Partner at Montagu Evans.