The Place Co.

Creating places people want to be.

We help councils, landowners and partners transform ambitious ideas into places people experience, enjoy and remember.

A diverse group of people sitting and socialising at outdoor tables in an urban setting with buildings and construction cranes in the background. Hackney Bridge.

From city centres and innovation districts to meanwhile projects and destinations, we bring people together, build momentum and deliver projects that create lasting value.

View Our Projects

The best places aren’t imagined into existence.

They’re built.

At The Place Co., we believe the quickest way to create confidence is to show what’s possible.

That might mean a festival before a masterplan.

A meanwhile project before a permanent development.

Or bringing partners together around a shared vision that becomes real through action.

Because places don’t change through reports alone.

They change when people experience what’s possible.

That’s why everything we do is focused on creating momentum.

Not just writing strategies, but helping ambitious projects move forward through collaboration, creativity and delivery.

Women and children working together at an engagement event. Pop Brixton.

How We Help

A lively outdoor event at Pop Fields with many people gathered in front of a large outdoor screen, surrounded by colourful wooden structures and seating areas, under a bright sky. Pop Brixton.

Every successful place starts with a shared vision.

We help partners define ambition, build consensus and create the foundations for long-term change.

Imagine

Ideas become stronger when people can experience them.

From meanwhile projects to cultural activation and events, we help test ideas in the real world.

Activate

A large crowd of people at an indoor concert or party, some with drinks, enjoying and dancing with colorful lighting and a disco ball overhead. Pop Brixton.

Great places need leadership as much as vision.

We help ambitious projects move from strategy into delivery through collaboration, commercial thinking and practical action.

Deliver

Crowd of people at an outdoor evening event with string lights overhead, inside a space made of repurposed shipping containers, some with illuminated signs. Pop Brixton.

Featured Projects

One of Britain’s best-known meanwhile projects, transforming underused land into a thriving destination for local independent businesses, food, culture and community.

Role: Co-founder & CEO, leading the design, build, delivery & operation

Pop Brixton

A digital illustration of a modern cityscape with historic buildings, green spaces, waterway, and outdoor cafes. Features include Oxford Station, research labs, makers space, people biking, walking, and socialiing, with cranes and drone in the sky, and scientific icons like DNA strands and molecular structures.

Helping shape one of the UK’s most significant innovation districts by bringing together public and private partners around a shared vision and delivery programme.

Role: Leading the West End Landowners Group

Oxford West End

A park filled with people sitting on the grass and walking, with a modern white building with orange windows and a tall red tower in the background, under a clear blue sky. Hackney Bridge.

Creating one of London’s largest creative campuses, bringing together workspace, events, culture and public life.

Role: Co-founder & CEO, overseeing design, build, delivery & operation

Hackney Bridge

Colorful illustrations of various outdoor entertainment and event spaces including a stage with curtain, a dance floor, seating areas, tents, trees, and a small pink playground in a park setting. Waltham Forest.

Creating and implementing the Destination’s Business Plan, transforming Waltham Forest into London’s cultural neighbourhood

Role: Corporate Director, Culture & Destinations

Waltham Forest

Indoor playground with colourful ramps and walls, children and adults playing and sitting, illuminated with pink, green, and orange lights. Peckham Levels.

Reimagining a multi-storey car park as one of London’s most loved creative destinations.

Role: Co-founder & CEO, leading the design, build, delivery & operation.

Peckham Levels

Aerial view of a colorful outdoor playground with children and adults, surrounded by high-rise buildings and murals on apartment walls, in a cityscape. IDB Lisbon.

International Design Building Lisbon

Advising on the future of a major mixed-use innovation building, exploring how creative development can create a distinctive destination.

Role: Engagement & Feasibility Study

About

A man with glasses, wearing a black sweater and jeans, sitting on a red bench in an indoor space with large green plants in yellow pots behind him, and a person walking in the background. James Leay. Peckham Levels.

Experience built through delivery.

The Place Co. was founded by James Leay.

James has created, operated and advised on some of the UK’s most recognised regeneration, meanwhile and destination projects.

His experience spans local government, commercial development, cultural programming, innovation districts and destination management.

Having worked as both an operator and an adviser, he understands not only how places should be planned, but how they attract people, support businesses and continue thriving over time.

The Place Co. exists to bridge the gap between ambition and delivery.

Because creating great places isn’t just about having good ideas.

It’s about making them happen.

Get in Touch

Let’s create somewhere people want to be.

Whether you’re shaping a town centre, unlocking an empty site or exploring the future of a major regeneration project, we’d love to hear from you.