EW+S connects the Park with Hackney Wick & Fish Island, bringing more than 1,800 homes, new green spaces and play areas alongside an eclectic range of commercial opportunities for all to thrive.

East Wick + Sweetwater (EW+S) are two development districts forming one new neighbourhood on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP), providing just over 1,850 homes, alongside mixed-use facilities adjacent to Here East, Copper Box Arena and the London Stadium. The collaborative approach, led by co-masterplanners Sheppard Robson and Studio Egret West, with astudio, Piercy&Company and shedkm, creates an authentic London neighbourhood that meets the needs of 21st century urban living. A rich tapestry of typologies creates a cohesive and sustainable community that provides ‘lifetime homes’, appealing to all Londoners, from young sharers, to established families or ‘empty nesters’, allowing flexibility and adaption for future needs of the evolving community.

The masterplan amends existing outline planning consents, led by an ambition to strengthen the neighbourhoods’ identity and sense of place, drawing upon their history and context. The scheme integrates into its surroundings, mending the gap in urban fabric between Hackney Wick, Fish Island, River Lea Navigation and the Park. The scheme provides new vistas to the Velodrome and explores the opportunity to forge stronger links between Canal Park and QEOP, encouraging people to venture into the development. The landscape plays a pivotal role as an intergenerational and playable space, blending the neighbourhoods with the Park.

EW+S will be delivered over seven phases, beginning with East Wick, where Phase 1 is already complete. The architecture champions consistently high-quality standardised design, creating a family of styles that builds a genuine sense of community. The masterplan includes various community facilities, including a medical centre, small scale workplaces, shops and nurseries.

EW+S is intrinsically sustainable, offering exemplar energy efficiency and low carbon emissions, reduced water use, materials with high recycled content, climate change resilience, high quality and biodiverse public realm and reduced impact on the environment during construction.

Commenting, Yuved Bheenick, Development Director at East Wick + Sweetwater, said:
“East Wick + Sweetwater is quickly becoming a vibrant, sustainable new area in its own right. With hundreds of quality new homes in a range of tenures, a growing community of residents in our first phase as well as a mix of new shops and commercial spaces, it’s really starting to take shape.”

Rosanna Lawes, Executive Director of Development at the London Legacy Development Corporation, added:
“EW+S provides much needed new homes, schools, shops and public realm bringing together Hackney Wick and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and it is great to see the new residents who have moved into East Wick and enjoying the local area.”

Charles Scott, Associate Partner at Sheppard Robson , commented:
“I’ve been involved at East Wick + Sweetwater from the earliest design stages with the Joint Venture team (Places for People and Balfour Beatty Investments).
We wanted to create an exemplary new neighbourhood, based on the principle of creating different ladders of opportunities as people moved here. For example, you might arrive as a young professional, so we wanted there to be great homes to rent, as well as affordable opportunities like Shared Ownership. Then, a few years later, you might decide to buy one of the new apartments. Then again, if you find yourself with a growing family and in need of more space, you can move to one of the bigger townhouse-style homes as your life experience changes.
We really wanted East Wick + Sweetwater to welcome a diverse community with people from all walks of life—be that age, income or working background—because this mix of people is intrinsic to what makes a successful London neighbourhood.
Seven years on from our original masterplan designs, I’m delighted to see that this ethos is still here. Visiting today, you walk around and see all sorts of unexpected, interesting things, like different buildings and street scenes, which are growing together.
People cross over the canal from Hackney Wick into East Wick + Sweetwater, as they are now seeing it as a new neighbourhood with new facilities and services that are thriving and relevant. It’s becoming a part of everyday life and that’s really exciting.
You’ve also got the amazing evolution of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Now people are coming here not because of the London 2012 Olympic legacy, but just because it’s a great park. Then you’ve got East Bank coming with its amazing new occupiers, and I think this is going to make it an even more interesting place. It’s a great time to be moving here, and each week is more exciting.”