Simon Henley on Grow Places podcast
May 2026
"Feet on the ground, head in the clouds."
In the latest episode of the Grow Places Podcast, Tom Larsson, Founder and CEO of Grow Places, sits down with Simon Henley, at their studio in Perseverance Works, East London. They have worked together for over a decade, aligning elegant and economic buildings with the needs of people and place, and this conversation captures exactly why.
Simon describes a thirty-year career shaped as much by accident and curiosity as by intention, from early interiors work and adaptive reuse through to award-winning schools, health centres, co-housing and housing.
One line from our conversation captures the ethos: "Every project has a client, but every project is for society."
That belief runs through everything Henley Halebrown does.
They explored how courtyards and external circulation can solve problems of efficiency, microclimate and social connection simultaneously. Why a school that stayed open at 40 degrees is a lesson in palpable sustainability. How the intimate, discursive culture of a design team can challenge the status quo and arrive at unexpected, better outcomes, and why Simon believes citizens have responsibilities, not just consumer rights, when it comes to the buildings they inhabit.
The episode takes its title from the practice's recently published book, Henley Halebrown – Building for Society, and that ethos is felt in every project Simon describes, from the Copper Lane co-housing scheme to the newly completed Barge Crescent on the South Bank, to their current work in Winchester, which he believes will be the greatest transformation of the city in a thousand years.
For developers, architects, planners and anyone who believes buildings should do more than function, this is a conversation about ambition grounded in common sense.
Listen here