The battle for London's hidden borough: The 16 square miles of golf courses

In a city short of housing and parks, councils and architects are turning to putting greens and fairways

Afternoon — the new Labour government has promised to “get Britain building again”, with plans to bring back mandatory housing targets and allow more development on the green belt. But in London, there’s a growing push to unlock a specific type of land: golf courses.

For this week’s Spy big read, we’re bringing you three tales from London’s ‘golf belt’ — the 16 square miles of land in the capital that’s given over to the sport, much of which is publicly owned. One is of an architect seeing interest from golfers in grand plans to use their land for housing. Another is of a clubhouse fighting their eviction. One more involves dodgy financial figures and a major high court case.

The battle of London’s hidden borough is below.

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Inside the plot to unlock London’s golf belt

Conceptual plans for housing on Enfield Golf Course, produced by architects RCKa

London golf clubs are considering plans to build houses on their courses, the Spy can reveal, amid growing scrutiny of whether the land is being used fairly in a city short of space.

In 2021 a study found publicly-owned golf courses in London occupy land similar in size to the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham — enough room to house 300,000 people, in contrast to the smaller number of Londoners that play the sport.

The Spy has now learned several golf clubs in the capital have approached the architect behind the study, who has also worked up extensive proposals to turn courses into housing, leisure and park developments.