William Chamberlain

William represents one of the first ‘community’ studentships to be awarded by the Institute of Media and Creative Industries.

William is also co-founder of The Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust, engaging residents, developers, landlords, landowners and public authorities to secure ownership of buildings and spaces in the community interest.

Both have been instrumental in the area’s creative economy being recognised and protected within both Hackney and Tower Hamlets’ Local Authority Area Action Plans, and, in 2019, establishing the area as one of the Mayor of London's first Creative Enterprise Zone. William is also Project Director of The Wick, a hyper-local newspaper and media platform supporting the rapid recovery of the areas’ local enterprises, post pandemic.

William is a solicitor and partner at Counterculture LLP, where he advises creative and cultural organisations on creative social enterprise led urban regeneration.

William’s PhD builds on the work that he has carried out since 2008, representing and organising Hackney Wick’s and Fish Island's grassroots creative cluster, to help ensure an ‘inside-out’ model of regeneration in the legacy building for the 2012 Olympic Games; one in which where community consultation is used as a tool of co-production and shared vision-building.

Following a career in sports law and corporate sponsorship, William was a member of the commercial team of the London 2012 Olympic bid before becoming a resident of Hackney Wick in 2008 and launching the Hackney Wick & Fish Island Cultural Interest Group, which went on to become social enterprise and placemaking agency, Creative Wick.

Professor Mikko Koria & Professor Patria Roman-Velazquez

• Sailing
• Tennis