Thank you again to everyone who contributed to the Cultural Quarter planning process back in 2024. Your ideas, experiences and hopes for Crawley helped show how much people care about the future of the town centre, and how much appetite there is for a more welcoming, creative and active place for everyone.
Since then, as well as the Cultural Quarter work, we have also been involved in developing a Cultural Framework for Crawley with Crawley Borough Council and Tom Fleming Creative Consultants. Your feedback contributed to this work too. You can read it here.
Crawley Borough Council is now asking for feedback on its draft Town Centre East Regeneration Plan which you can read here. We understand this plan has been informed by the Cultural Quarter work.
The deadline to respond is 29th July 2026. Anyone that uses Crawley town centre is encouraged to complete it.
It is a long and detailed document, but at its heart it is about the future of a really important part of the town centre, including the former Town Hall, County Buildings, Crawley College, Queensway, The Boulevard and the area around Memorial Gardens.
The plan includes proposals for new homes, workspaces, college facilities, public spaces, walking and cycling routes, and some cultural and community uses. It could shape Crawley town centre for many years to come.
There is a lot to welcome in the plan. It recognises that the town centre needs to be more than just shops. It talks about public space, culture, day time and evening activity, education, workspace and community life. These are all important.
However, we also have some concerns.
During the Cultural Quarter consultation, many people spoke about the need for visible, accessible cultural space in the town centre: places where people can gather, create, perform, learn, work, take part and feel proud of Crawley.
In the current regeneration plan, that ambition appears to have been significantly reduced.
Creative Crawley’s response notes that only 891 sqm of dedicated cultural space appears to be clearly allocated in the masterplan. That is just 0.5% of the proposed 171,645 sqm redevelopment. To put that into perspective, this is roughly 1.7 x the size of Creative Crawley’s space at Unit 79/80 in County Mall, which Creative Crawley temporarily transformed into a cultural hub in 2025.
So, across a major town centre regeneration plan, the amount of clearly dedicated cultural space currently identified seems to be just a bit bigger than one temporary unit in County Mall.
The plan shows several possible “cultural nodes” or places where culture could happen, including the Decathlon building on Queensway, the bandstand in Memorial Gardens, a toilet block on The Boulevard, the theatre at Crawley College, a public square near the new Town Hall and the former M&S building. But, as far as we can see, only two of these have clear cultural floor space attached to them: around 425 sqm at Crawley College theatre and 466 sqm in the Decathlon building.
Some of the other ideas may be exciting, but a bandstand, a repurposed toilet block, a public square or mixed-use ground-floor space are not enough on their own to deliver the cultural infrastructure Crawley needs.
At the moment, culture feels present in the language of the plan, but not yet properly protected in the design, space or delivery.
We also think the words “culture” and “activity” can be confusing when they are treated as separate things. For many people, culture is activity. It is not just theatres, galleries or formal arts spaces. It is the everyday things that make a place feel alive: music, food, dance, festivals, workshops, youth activities, creative businesses, markets, heritage, performance, making, learning, gathering, playing and spending time together.
A successful town centre should be a place where people can take part, not just a place where things are put on for them. It should support local artists, young people, community groups, independent businesses and residents. It should create places where people feel welcome, safe and proud to spend time.
We are also concerned that the community feedback already gathered through the Cultural Quarter work is not yet clearly visible in the regeneration plan. Lots of people gave their time, ideas and energy to that process. The final plan should show how those voices have shaped the proposals, and how local people will continue to be involved as the plans develop.
Please do respond to the council’s survey. You do not need to be a planning expert. You do not need to read every page of the full plan. The most useful thing you can do is respond from your own experience of Crawley and say what would make the town centre feel more useful, welcoming, creative and alive for you.
In your response, you might want to ask the council to:
This is an important opportunity to speak up for the kind of town centre Crawley needs. Please do take a few minutes to respond, and please share the survey with anyone else who cares about the future of the town.
Thank you.
Images:
Graphic Rewilding: Crawley Town Centre by Baker and Borowski, formerly on the former M&S building, The Pavement, Crawley town centre, image by Jacob Punter
Stories of Strength bv Strong Lady Productions, Queens Square, Crawley town centre, image by Jess Hand
Gateway to the World by Alec Saunders, County Mall, Crawley town centre, image by Ian Greenland
Crawley Oak by Eloise Gillow, on the corner of Queensway, Crawley town centre, image by Ian Greenland
