Sadler Square

Sadler Square uses urban stitching to create a series of public squares and secret gardens threading through a new mixed use neighbourhood in Derby’s Cathedral Quarter. The proposal replaces a moribund set of sheds with an intricate new urban quarter of shops, a café restaurant, apartments and offices, which takes its cues from its surroundings, and links through to other local destinations.

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Our approach has been to study and learn from the nature, sequence and scales of Derby’s urbanism, and to continue its rhythms into our site in a way which respects the best of what of exists while allowing a fresh and contemporary architectural approach.

In particular, our proposal aims to create a development with active frontages to both Bold Lane and onto a sheltered pedestrian square. This proposal is complete in itself, but it is also conceived as part of a wider masterplan for this area of Derby.

As and if future phases are completed, this first phase of development will then give onto a series of interlinked spaces running up the hill towards Iron Gate, part of a permeable network of new pedestrian routes running north-south and east-west. In this way, a critical mass of pedestrian movement will bring more people to the streets to the north.