Developers want to double number of homes built on Brentford FC's Griffin Park

By Megan Stanley

More than two years after Brentford FC left Griffin Park, the number of homes built on the old stadium looks set to double. The former football ground in Hounslow is set to be turned into at least 75 homes, but developers intend to ask the council to build more than 140 new houses and apartments instead.

Griffin Park welcomed millions of football fans for over a century, but the ground is set to have a very different future in the hands of developers. Plans to change the site into housing date back to 2005, but builders could not move in until Brentford moved into the Gtech Community Stadium in 2020.

Hounslow Council approved plans to turn the 117-year-old ground into 75 homes, ranging from two to four storeys in 2021. The plans also included 102 parking spaces, plus a memorial garden to remember the football ground that stood before.

None of the new homes would be affordable and no money would be used to support local infrastructure, but that is about to change. New developers EcoWorld London, who took over the site in 2020, have bigger plans for the football site.

On the Griffin Park website, the developer says: "Following EcoWorld taking ownership of the site they believe they have an improved scheme that provides greater benefit to Brentford and future residents."

The new scheme almost doubles the number of homes from 75 to 149. These homes will include 41 houses, with the biggest having five bedrooms, plus 108 flats ranging from one-bed to three-bed homes.

Despite nearly doubling the number of homes available, these proposals will only increase the population by 23 per cent compared to the old plans. This is because developers want to reduce the number of three-bed houses, but significantly increase the number of one and two-bedroom flats available.

These new homes are set to be slightly bigger, with buildings at the centre of the development proposed to be six storeys tall, but still lower than the existing floodlights. New buildings near the houses that line the former stadium will be shorter, from two to four storeys tall.

New proposals include fewer parking spaces, there will just be 65 car spaces with electric charging points. Ecoworld says it will be a development focused on walking and cycling, with 279 cycle storage spaces for residents to use.

Under these new plans, the memorial garden will more than triple in size, increase biodiversity and be available for all Brentford residents. Developers also say they will contribute £4 million to Hounslow Council and the Greater London Authority to be spent on healthcare, schools and transport.

These new plans were drawn up in 2015 with a number of consultation meetings held in March. The Local Democracy Service understands that 15,000 households were approached about the new proposals and a new planning application will be submitted to Hounslow Council in 2023.

EcoWorld London have been approached for comment and the full proposals can be found online here.