ADAM Architecture’s masterplan for St Martin’s Park in Stamford, Lincolnshire receives full planning approval

We are delighted that full planning approval has been granted for our masterplan and commercial buildings for St Martin’s Park, a major new mixed-use development in Lincolnshire. St Martin’s Park is a redevelopment of a former factory site on the edge of the historic market town of Stamford and will deliver 500 new jobs and 342 new homes for the town. The new neighbourhood will sit immediately to the north of the Grade I-listed Burghley House, with open countryside to the east.

ADAM Architecture’s plans for Burghley Land Ltd, will deliver two distinctive employment zones and prominent areas within the neighbourhood, including a residential mixed-use street and a commercial area, complete with co-working spaces and a public square, local grocery store, and café.

The characterful mixed-use street at the heart of the neighbourhood will deliver 23 apartments, seven of which will be affordable. Composed to feel like a high street, it will feature a variety of building styles and heights, housing small commercial office units on the ground floors and residential apartments above. Traditional Lincolnshire building materials will include buff brick, slate and Clipsham limestone. The street has been sensitively designed to be sympathetic to the historically important Burghley estate nearby.

The commercial area in the neighbourhood’s western quarter, will produce 10,000sqm of space across eight industrial-style buildings. Designed to reflect Stamford’s 18th and 19th century trading history, the area will take influences from both industrial wharfs and mills in the local towns, and the red brick ‘1904’ factory building that once stood on the site. It will be home to a rich mix of small-scale office accommodation for SMEs, co-working spaces, and larger commercial units with the internal flexibility for start-up businesses to expand.

This employment area will be clustered around a central square, a large neighbourhood store and a café. It will be characterised by a series of pedestrianised courtyards and squares, framed by the different buildings, and will include a green buffer separating the site from the adjacent railway while creating space for wildlife and recreation. A formal avenue of parkland trees against the road will create a recognisable approach to this beautiful market town while complementing the Burghley estate parkland.

With our commitment to achieving BREEAM ‘Very Good’ certification or better, plans for the mixed-use and commercial areas include a fabric-first approach to building design, as well as the use of PV panels, air source heat pumps and ventilation with heat recovery. The team has worked hard to push the boundaries of sustainability with a design that costs the same price per square foot as a normal building, regulation-compliant design.

St Martin’s Park development is due to start on site in late 2026.

Hugh Petter, Design Partner at ADAM Architecture and Executive Architect on the St Martin’s Park masterplan, says: “St Martin’s Park has been developed to form a coherent new part of Stamford, responsive to and anchored in the character of this most beautiful market town. As a practice, we believe wholeheartedly in the importance of walkability, of exemplary sustainable design, and of the embracing of distinctive local character. We are proud to be working with Burghley on this landmark project, which will do so much to bring new life and vitality to this post-industrial site to the west of Stamford.”