Westfield wants to build you a home

It is already a place of pilgrimage for dedicated shoppers, and now aficionados of the delights of Westfield White City could live on the doorstep as one of the biggest new post-recession housing projects goes before the planners.

Westfield wants to build more than just 1,600 homes on the 22 acres north of its shopping mall on either side of Ariel Way.

If approved, this £1 billion project will be truly Westfield World. Houses will be arranged around a series of garden squares, with others in blocks up to 20 storeys high. There will be a “village green” and civic square, new cafés and restaurants, leisure facilities, a bus interchange - and more shops, including, it is rumoured, a new John Lewis.

Most of the site will be pedestrianised and will link to Shepherd’s Bush, where Hammersmith and Fulham council is also considering separate plans for a regeneration of the market, including more than 200 new homes.

The Westfield plans, drawn up by architects Allies and Morrison, the firm behind the BBC Media Village and the Kings Cross Central redevelopment, are now being scrutinised by council officers.

Duncan Bower, director of development and asset management at Westfield, said: “We have already received a considerable amount of support for the plans and the submission is an important step in bringing more jobs, homes and facilities to the local community.”

If the scheme is approved, work could begin by 2014. It is not the first example of a shopping centre being used as a catalyst for a major housing scheme. In north London, permission has been granted to build 7,500 new homes on land around Brent Cross shopping centre, despite strong opposition from local residents. Work is due to start there in 2015 or 2016.