Neil Deely

Co-Founder and Partner

Joined in 2004

Neil is Co-Founder and Partner of Metropolitan Workshop LLP, having established the practice with colleagues in 2004. His expertise is focused on complex mixed-use urban projects and he is particularly skilled in leading and co-ordinating collaborative design processes in sensitive historic and social contexts. He has a deep understanding and interest in the relationship between people and place.

Neil’s career has been committed to designing and building new communities. He leads the practice’s ongoing research into suburban housing densities and best practices models for engagement. Current key projects include Carpenters Estate Regeneration and Nationwide Building Society’s first housing scheme in Swindon. He oversaw the design and development of the practice’s two innovative modular affordable housing towers in Wandsworth and Croydon for developer Pocket Living.

Neil is a leading practitioner in design review. He has recently been appointed one of the Mayor of London’s Design Advocates. He has been the Chair of London Borough of Barking and Dagenham’s Quality Review Panel since 2019. He chaired London Borough of Newham’s Design Review Panel from 2012-2021 working closely with panel members, development teams, officers, and councilors to evaluate and negotiate the design quality of some of the UK’s largest mixed-use urban regeneration projects including ABP, Silvertown Quays and Albert Island. He was also Vice-Chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation Quality Review Panel and prior to that Architectural Adviser to the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC) and independent member of the Planning Committee (2008-2012). Neil was also Co-Chair of London Borough of Harrow’s Design Review Panel, Co-Chair of London Borough of Croydon’s Place Review Panel (2016-2021), and a member of Design South East’s Design Review Panel, Design Council CABE’s Greenwich panel as well as a member of CABE’s National Design Review Panel. Furthermore, Neil was the London Borough of Wandsworth’s representative on the Design Review Panel for the new US Embassy at Nine Elms in 2010 and served as one of the members of the RIBA Journal Editorial Committee 2016-2018.

He is design advisor and ‘Wise Friend’ to Urban Design for London (UDL) and Metropolitan Workshop as a practice has regularly provided UDL and Transport for London with training sessions on various topics to officers and politicians since 2009. To date, more than 1500 public sector delegates have attended these sessions.