Montpelier Nursery

Managed by a voluntary committee of parents, the nursey had been operating from a dilapidated temporary structure since 1983.

AY Architects’ prepared a feasibility study and obtained planning permission that unlocked funding from Camden’s Early Years Capital Programme to construct a nursery for 24 children.

The initiative was set up by parents for the community, a demonstration of self-help and persistence to the best ends.

The nursery responds to its site, a pocket park at the centre of a triangle of houses sloping downhill towards Kentish Town.

At the centre of the former Montpelier estate is a Regency villa, which sits behind the nursery and is used as a youth facility by Camden Social Services. The park is public and has three points of access.

The nursery managed a land swap with the villa and park to create a better relationship with the rest of the garden, while gaining more play area and offering a new bench in the public realm against the south-facing nursery wall.