Park Royal Small Business Talent Showcased at North Acton Square with Community Led Improvement Project
North Acton Square, located in the heart of West London’s Old Oak and Park Royal Opportunity Area, is a public space that frames North Acton Tube station and has been underutilised and mainly served as a thoroughfare for commuters and residents.
Now, local arts and cultural organisation The Republic - Community Projects has led an exciting project to revitalise and enliven the square, creating a social space for the community to come together, that showcases the very best North Acton and nearby Park Royal have to offer.
The project, commissioned by Ealing Council with support from Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), Imperial College London, City & Docklands, ADD Properties and Downing – aims to create a more welcoming and vibrant space for those who live, work in and visit the area.
The centrepiece is the installation of six carefully converted shipping containers, designed by architects Christian Senkpiel and Tomato Studio, and positioned along the north of the square, that provide a new home for a range of local businesses.
Tenants include:
• Awakener, a coffee maker that has operated since March 2022 from a cart in the square.
• Barber, Hamsa the Barber.
• Street food vendor, Sound Burger.
• A micro pub.
• An Information Hub for Park Royal Design District.
• And a shop selling art and design-led products from Park Royal.
Located next to the converted containers, a Village Hut has been constructed to provide additional new meeting space for the local community. Built at the nearby Minerva Works Circular Economy Hub in Park Royal using recycled waste materials, the hut will support a host of community activities.
Alongside this, wider improvements include:
• Landscaping works that are ongoing. These remove overgrown weeds to reveal views of the square as you arrive from Victoria Road, improving natural surveillance and accessibility - alongside new planting to enhance the character of the square.
• The installation of a Gardener’s Shed that provides space to store gardening tools and equipment, enabling the community to join in maintaining the landscaping.
• Graffiti removal, jet washing of the paving and improved lighting to create a safer, more welcoming environment day and night.
As one of the key stakeholders leading the investment and change that is happening in the OPDC area, we are committed to working with our local partners to improve public spaces and support the small businesses that are the backbone of the area. North Acton and Park Royal are home to some amazing and innovative local enterprises, and it is fantastic to see some of them take up space here in the heart of a refreshed North Acton Square, on the doorstep of the future Old Oak. We look forward to continuing to work alongside our partners to bring further improvements to North Acton and the wider Old Oak and Park Royal Opportunity Area.
These substantial improvements to the square will create new prospects for businesses and jobs for local people. All businesses trading from the square will be London Living Wage accredited which supports our status as the only London Living Wage place in West London. There will be many opportunities for people to contribute to the new thriving community space. We are looking forward to sharing more in the coming months. Watch this space.
This project is all about existing and emerging small businesses joining together with local landowners and the public sector and pooling resources and creativity to improve a public space for the community. I am so excited by what we have been able to achieve here through collaboration. The measure of success will be in how the North Acton community now makes use of, enjoys and cares for this shared space in the future.
Imperial has been a proud anchor in the North Acton and Old Oak community for more than a decade, with more than 1,500 students and staff based in the area, and a growing community of frontier technology entrepreneurs across our innovation spaces. We are delighted to support our local partners to bring positive activity to our shared commons: The North Acton Square. The ethos of this partnership reflects our shared determination that positive change must happen at scale and pace to realise the extraordinary potential of this exciting neighbourhood.
The Republic - Community Projects has worked with Ealing Council, OPDC, Imperial, City & Docklands, ADD Properties and Downing to plan, fund and deliver the works.
North Acton is on the doorstep of OPDC’s Old Oak project, one of the capital’s largest regeneration schemes, the first phase of which will create a mixed-use urban district bringing 8,000 new and affordable homes, up to 200,000 sq m of workspace, local facilities and green and open spaces, across approximately 70 acres of publicly owned land.
Imperial’s Old Oak Innovation Cluster, centred around North Acton, includes student accommodation and key worker homes, with 1,500 students and staff already resident in the area. Imperial is repositioning Victoria Industrial Estate, the 9.6-acre site in North Acton, to become an Advanced Manufacturing hub. In 2026, Imperial plans to create a new science and innovation space for scaling businesses.The North Acton project was also supported by Recollective and engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan.