Oasis Cycle Centre

Location: Southeast London

Client: Oasis Children's Venture

Sector: Education, Social Good

Cost: £3.1m

Status: Planning

Oasis Children's Venture approached Marks Barfield to design an adventure play area for children in one of the most deprived inner city areas in London. The project will provide children and young people with a safe place to go where they can develop their skills, attitudes and abilities to reach their individual potential.

The design involved a site masterplan, maximising the BMX track by taking it over the roof of the play building and a cycle repair workshop. Marks Barfield successfully gained planning permission for the project and helped and supported the charity in a number of fundraising initiatives.

When funding for the project did not materialise Marks Barfield - having kept in touch in the intervening years - in June 2011 organised a meeting between Oasis, the local MP, Kate Hoey, and social entrepreneur Iain Tuckett, and two students in 4year at London Met (Benjamin Barfield Marks and Matt Atkins),  to try a kick start the project and help them put together a sustainable business plan to safeguard the Charity's future.

It emerged at the meeting that Iain Tuckett was about to demolish the offices of the Coinstreet Community builders - one part of which was an original Walter Segal building. He offered the building to Oasis if they could disassemble it and remove it from site within three weeks! This was subsequently acheived through the bringing together of over 60 volunteers. The project was entirely led by Ben and Matt. They managed the project and redesigned the building reusing the original parts, fulfilling the requirements of OASIS. They also oversaw and participated in the rebuild in it’s current location.