Fish Island is a comprehensive development that integrates multiple uses including residential accommodation, workspaces, and educational facilities for higher education. Conceived as two distinct phases – Fish Island West in 2018 and Fish Island East in 2021- the scheme was developed on the historic site of the former John Broadwood & Sons piano factory, located in Hackney Wick.
Project Name: Fish Island
Studio Name: Henley Halebrown
Completion: 2024
Area: 13,405m2
This area, traditionally industrial in character, is delineated by key infrastructural elements: the A12 dual carriageway, the Hertford Union Canal and the River Lea Navigation, which separates Fish Island from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Fish Island West, known as Wick Park, comprises residential facilities, incubator workspaces for graduates of the University of the Arts London (UAL) and affordable commercial units and completed in 2024.
Wick Park organises 37 shared residential flats for up to 330 students around two primary courtyards. One serves as a private garden exclusively for residents, while the other is a public courtyard that anchors a five-storey commercial building situated to the east. This commercial structure features industrial-style interiors with external working decks on each level, reinforcing the site’s creative ethos. The public courtyard also initiates the first of two pedestrian routes through the development, complemented by a west-facing public square adjacent to both the main residential entrance and the historic Algha Works. Residential floors typically accommodate seven flats, with bedrooms positioned along the building’s perimeter to ensure each has direct street views. Shared kitchens and glazed circulation areas overlook the courtyards, fostering communal interaction and visibility.
Fish Island East, which is expected to complete in 2027, provides accommodation for an additional 204 students, while further enhancing the provision of incubator workspaces for graduates. It also introduces a dedicated facility for the Stour Trust, a community organisation that offers affordable workspaces to local creative practitioners. The development as a whole – through its integration of student and graduate housing, creative studios, and community-focused initiatives – seeks to cultivate and sustain the area’s vibrant creative economy.
Fish Island’s architectural language draws on the site’s industrial heritage, characterised by a diverse and robust built environment. At Wick Park, the design employs a monumental rhythm of brick piers and precast concrete arched beams. Window groupings in sets of four reduce visual monotony and are accentuated with bright colours to reflect the area’s creative identity. In contrast, Fish Island East features smaller-scale elevations along the street, articulated through a ‘warp and weft’ pattern of brick piers and contrasting spandrels framing individual windows. These facades contrast with the simpler brick surfaces that define the internal precincts of the development.
Simon Henley, founder of Henley Halebrown, notes: “Fish Island West’s 71-metre-long street frontage incorporates grouped window openings within a larger structural framework, which mitigates visual repetition. The use of colour and masonry construction further modulates the building’s scale.”
