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Prescot Forum

New public square and cafe in Prescot, Knowsley

 

Prescot Forum

A New Public Space to Enhance a Market Town

 

Mark Wray Architects in collaboration with Seed Landscape won an international RIBA architectural competition to transform a neglected public space in the heart of Prescot, Merseyside. Selected from 45 entries, our proposal envisages the former Market Place as a new public forum. Based on Roman precedent, the Forum is a gathering space and external foyer for key landmarks in the town, noticeably the historic Parish Church and the new Shakespeare North Playhouse.

The design brings together the natural landscape of the adjacent churchyard with the urban streetscape of the town. The key to providing the necessary visual and physical connections into and from the Forum is the removal of the retaining wall to the North that isolates the current space and the creation of South facing terraced seating.

The 1960s former wc block to the West of the site is extended and repurposed as a cafe/bistro to be run by a Community Interest Company to ensure a presence and sense of ownership of the site and to reduce anti-sociable behaviour. Within the central space, facilities have been provided to allow for temporary structures and events to host a range of different activities to provide an ongoing and varied programme within the space.  


Aerial view of Prescot and the Forum in context with the parish church and Shakespeare North Playhouse

 

The pavilion is modest in scale as part of the churchyard wall in front of the Grade I listed parish church

 

Resin bound path leading through the new woodland landscape

 

The central space is defined by granite steps and occasional seating

 

Summer family activities

 

Temporary ice rink within the Forum

Fixings to construct the flexible ‘roundhouse’ are set into the hard surfaces

 
 
 

In collaboration with Seed Landscape

Location: Prescot, Merseyside
Client: Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council / Prescot THI
Status: Historic, public
Date: Completed 2019
Quantity surveyor: Howard Grady Associates
Structure: Momentum
Contractor: Armitage Construction
Photography: Steve Samosa
Team:  Mark Wray, Louise Wray, Jamie Holmes,  Juan Manuel López 

Awards

RIBA Competitions’ Reimagining Market Place Winner

Civic Trust Regional Finalist 2021

Press

Transforming Towns: Designing for Smaller Communities, RIBA Publishing, 2020

Architects Journal, 08/2017

BD Online, 08/2017