REPORT: A COMMUNITY-POWERED NEIGHBOURHOOD IN EUSTON
Between August and November 2025, Old Diorama Arts Centre (ODAC) was commissioned by Camden Council, working alongside the Euston Housing Delivery Group, to undertake community research exploring the principles and priorities shaping the future of housing in Euston.
Euston will be undergoing significant regeneration. The area has the potential to become something extraordinary — but only if it is shaped with local people, not around them. The future must be community-powered, not a transport and commerce hub that displaces existing communities.
WHAT WE RESEARCHED
Our research focused on three questions:
“What makes a good home?”
“What makes a good neighbourhood?”
“How do we work in partnership to make this a reality?”
To answer them, ODAC collaborated with organisations across the area, including Fitzrovia Youth in Action, whose work focused on young people, delivering an arts-led, person-centred programme that reached deep into the community.
Together, we harnessed the power of creativity to open up conversations around existing housing and the future of new homes in Euston. Residents of all ages took part, alongside local people with lived experience of homelessness; sharing openly their challenges and their hopes for the future.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Across every conversation, three messages rang out with clarity:
Good homes are the foundation of health and wellbeing, and should be truly affordable, accessible and adaptable to the needs of their inhabitants - starting with existing homes alongside new builds.
A good neighbourhood is safe, green and brings people together; with clean air, connected communities, and diverse and sustainable public spaces, services and social infrastructure.
Partnership must be genuinely collaborative. Resident voices need real influence and impact. A reset is required — with new models of decision-making co-designed alongside community organisations, including young people.
Through trust, deep conversation, crafting and making, participatory theatre, and inspiring examples of the possibilities of community power, we discovered what people of Euston have experienced, what’s important to them, and how they want to move forward.
READ THE FULL REPORT
Inside the report, you will find:
Insights and perspectives from hundreds of residents aged 4 to 95
Creative research developed with people who have experienced homelessness
Clear priorities for homes, neighbourhood infrastructure and shared decision-making
Evidence gathered through workshops, festivals and participatory projects
WATCH THE FILM ABOUT ODAC’S RESEARCH PROCESS
SHAPING POLICY
ODAC and FYA’s findings were presented at the Euston Housing Community Forum, a representative group of local residents who came together over three sessions with an independent facilitator, Daisy Froud. The findings - and the Forum’s further contributions - shaped the Euston Housing Pact, a vision for how we work with communities to deliver future housing in the area.
The Pact will be published by Camden Council later in March 2026.
A COLLECTIVE EFFORT
This research was led by Old Diorama Arts Centre’s team of producers and artist-researchers, with a separate youth-led research project delivered by Fitzrovia Youth in Action, and working closely with Hopscotch Women’s Centre, Somers Town Community Association and many other local organisations.
The programme was shaped with and hosted by a wide network of Euston-based community groups — including tenant and residents’ associations, youth groups, projects supporting older people, and participants from ODAC’s One Roof, Neighbourhood Makeshop and Remix Dance programmes — whose trust and participation made this work possible.
We are grateful to additional facilitators and consultants who contributed expertise on neighbourhood democracy and community power.
A full list of project team members, community partners, contributors and documentation credits can be found in the report.
If you are interested in the research, would like to share feedback, or are interested in conducting creative, person-centred research, please contact daniel@olddiorama.com.
WHAT ARE ODAC DOING NEXT AND HOW TO GET INVOLVED?
Want to talk through this report? Want to understand what might happen next in more detail?
Have you got ideas about a community-powered neighbourhood in Euston should progress? Do you want to help with community organising?
Join us at ODAC at 6.30pm on Monday 13th April for a meeting and workshop about what’s next. Sign up info available soon.
The Me & Youston community-crafted model neighbourhood artwork will be exhibited in ODAC’s foyer.
