The Camley Street Young Researchers in Residence programme was an eight-week paid working and learning experience in which seven young women and nonbinary people, aged 17–25, were hired as ‘Young Researchers’ . The project was run by Social Place and In Her Place with Ballymore, Lateral and Camden Council. The Young Researchers were ethnically diverse, and all but one of the researchers lived locally (the remaining researcher studied and socialised locally).

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The placement offered both a learning opportunity and a chance to influence real-world urban planning through inclusive, youth-led research. It focused on equipping participants with the skills, confidence, and platform to investigate their own experiences of public space, with a focus on their gendered experiences of safety, in order to develop proposals for the future redevelopment of Camley Street, Camden.

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The Young Researchers followed a curriculum of readings, lectures, and activities covering key social scientific, planning, and design themes. This gave them training in social scientific, visual, and spatial research methods, which they then applied to explore their experiences of Camley Street.

 

Activities included:
• Safety mapping and walking audits of the local area
• Observation, photography and filmmaking to highlight barriers and their experiences
• Creative writing, drawing, and collage to develop design ideas
• Zine and manifesto making to communicate key insights and priorities
• Presenting their work to the local authority and architects to influence change

 

Aims / Legacy

• Upskill a group of local young people in research, design, and creative methods;

• Build participants’ skills, confidence, and CVs through a paid work placement;

• Create meaningful collaboration between the local authority, architects, and young residents;

• Inform the designs for the Camley Street redevelopment with young residents’ insights;

• Produce in-principle proposals co-designed by the Young Researchers with Social Place and In Her Place, focusing on gender and safety;

• Gather mid-depth data on gendered use of public space and perceptions of safety;

• Present findings to local stakeholders to influence long-term change in the local area.

The Young Researchers’ work shows the value of embedding youth voices in urban planning as paid collaborators, with genuine space for learning, reflection, and influence. By centring women and gender-diverse young people, the programme broadened who gets heard in planning and design, while bringing in perspectives often missing from discussions about place, safety, and access. Their proposals offer detailed, gender-sensitive, practical, and creative ideas to make Camley Street safer, more inclusive, and more representative of its diverse communities.

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Outputs

• A summary report of the engagement, and the Young Researchers’ key findings and proposals (see below);

• A detailed report and mapping summarising the researchers’ findings, proposals, and priorities for the street (see below);

• A short film showing the Young Researchers’ thoughts and ambitions for Camley Street and displaying their body of work – including safety audits, mappings, drawings, collages, zines, photography, spatial analyses, and recordings;

• Presentation of findings to local stakeholders (September 2025).​​