Old Town Newbury

The challenge

Lochailort Newbury Ltd is the development arm of Lochailort, an award-winning regeneration specialist with a track record that includes Thames Quarter in Reading and Station Quarter in Huntingdon. Their Newbury project is one of the most significant town centre regeneration proposals in the south of England: the comprehensive redevelopment of the Kennet Centre, an aging 1960s-1980s shopping centre occupying a prime site between Bartholomew Street, Cheap Street, and Market Street.

The website needed to serve a uniquely complex purpose:

Community engagement was paramount. Large-scale regeneration projects live or die on public support. Residents, business owners, and local stakeholders needed to understand and — ideally — champion the proposals. The website had to earn trust, not just inform.

Heritage was the foundation. Newbury has over 600 years of recorded industrial and commercial heritage on this site. Lochailort’s vision is rooted in restoring the historic “urban grain” — the tight-knit pattern of streets, courts, yards, and passageways that characterised the town centre before the Kennet Centre replaced it. The website needed to tell this heritage story compellingly.

The vision was ambitious and multi-layered. Replacing a shopping centre that an entire generation has known requires careful communication. The proposals encompass retail, residential, public spaces, and heritage restoration — each element needing clear explanation with supporting visualisations.

The approach

I built the site with SvelteKit, powered by Payload CMS for content management and S3 for media storage, deployed on Hetzner via Coolify. This stack was chosen for its flexibility and performance — SvelteKit delivers fast page transitions ideal for the rich visual storytelling this project demanded, while Payload CMS gives the development team full control over content updates. For a community-facing project, the priority was universal access: every resident of Newbury needed to be able to view this site regardless of their device, browser, or connection speed.

The design strategy centred on:

1. Heritage-first narrative — Leading with Newbury’s fascinating history before introducing the development proposals, building emotional connection before asking for buy-in
2. Rich visual storytelling — Historical maps, archive photographs, and architectural visualisations woven together into a compelling narrative, with S3 storage handling the large volume of historical imagery
3. Transparent communication — Honest, detailed presentation of the proposals with clear explanations of what would change and why

The solution

Heritage storytelling

The site opens not with development plans, but with Newbury’s story. Visitors first encounter the rich history of the site — medieval markets, the cloth trade that made the town prosperous, the coaching inns that served travellers, the Victorian commercial streets that gave the area its character.

Historical maps are particularly powerful. They reveal the original urban grain — a dense, human-scale pattern of streets, courts, and passageways that evolved organically over centuries. Placing these alongside photographs of the Kennet Centre makes a compelling visual argument: what was lost, and what could be restored.

Development vision

Only after establishing the heritage context does the site present Lochailort’s regeneration proposals. This sequencing is deliberate — by the time visitors reach the development plans, they understand why restoration of the historic street pattern matters.

The proposals are presented through:

• Masterplan overview — The overall vision for the site, showing how new development respects and restores the historical layout
• Street-level perspectives — Architectural visualisations at eye level, helping visitors imagine walking through the regenerated town centre
• Mixed-use breakdown — Clear explanation of the retail, residential, public space, and heritage elements within the scheme
• Before and after — Comparisons between the current Kennet Centre and the proposed development

Lochailort’s track record

Building public confidence requires demonstrating credibility. The site showcases Lochailort’s previous regeneration projects — Thames Quarter in Reading and Station Quarter in Huntingdon — as evidence that they deliver on ambitious promises. Before-and-after imagery from these completed projects provides tangible proof of what sensitive regeneration looks like in practice.

Community engagement

The site serves as a permanent resource for the ongoing planning and consultation process. It provides clear information about:

• How to participate in public consultations
• Timeline for planning applications and decisions
• Contact details for the development team
• Frequently asked questions addressing common concerns

Project gallery

The results

The site successfully bridges 600 years of heritage with a 21st-century regeneration vision:

• Heritage-first engagement — Leading with Newbury’s history builds emotional connection and public support before introducing development proposals
• Visual storytelling — Historical maps, archive photographs, and architectural visualisations create a compelling narrative that text alone couldn’t achieve
• Community trust — Transparent, detailed communication about the proposals and the planning process
• Developer credibility — Lochailort’s track record with Thames Quarter and Station Quarter provides tangible evidence of delivery capability
• Universal accessibility — SvelteKit’s efficient rendering ensuring every Newbury resident can access the information regardless of device or connection speed

Regeneration projects are as much about storytelling as they are about architecture. This site demonstrates that when you lead with heritage and community, development proposals are received not as threats to a town’s character, but as opportunities to restore it.