City of London Streetscape Challenge - City of London

27-Jan-10

Public Realm Award Winner 2009

Summary

The Street Scene Challenge Initiative sets out how with a clear vision and a strategic approach significant enhancements to the public realm can be achieved. It aims to coordinate the delivery of public realm enhancements in the Cheapside area of the City of London, resulting in very high quality individual projects.

Background

Following the terrorist attacks on the core of the City in 1992 a traffic environmental zone (TEZ) was introduced overnight as a security cordon. Points of entry into the City were narrowed to calm traffic, 17 minor streets were closed and 13 were converted to one-way traffic. The TEZ was expanded to north and west in 1998, and between Holborn and Victoria Embankment in 2003. These measures have resulted in a 40% reduction in traffic within the Square Mile and offer the potential of revitalising the public realm by redressing the balance between pedestrian and traffic movement to create a safer and more inclusive environment.

Project Description

The Cheapside area strategy has been developed by the Corporation’s street scene team to coordinate the delivery of public realm enhancements in the Cheapside Area. It seeks to provide a strategic context in which development proposals, transportation and infrastructure works and essential security measures are considered holistically and in a way that respects the historic street pattern and secures Cheapside’s role as the centre for public life in the City of London. Cheapside is one of a number of strategic areas that have been identified under the adopted UDP and are now firmly contained within the LDF core strategy for the Borough. They now form part of a rolling programme of consultation and debate on plans for the enhancement of the public realm. Such was the priority and importance of the work that the City of London Corporation established a corporate team reporting directly to a committee dedicated to preparing and delivering the programme. A wide range of funding mechanisms such as section 106 and 278 contributions were utilised, as was external funding from sources such as Transport for London and a partnership established with the private sector who contributed significantly to the design, funding and implementation of the projects.

Planning Achievement

Quality and coordination with the private sector on design and materials is an essential component of the corporation’s approach. At Fen Court, the partnership was between the City and British Land and the funding provided by a section 106 agreement. It is a busy through route and prior to its enhancement it was drab and uninspiring with little sense of place beyond its function as a pedestrian route. Now, the garden to the west of Fen Court creates a pleasant and enjoyable space with high quality planting and accessible seating. Materials have been carefully chosen to distinguish and separate the garden from the main pedestrian route with the whole space being focused on a magnificent artwork commemorating the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, in recognition of the historical links of this area;
The Shoe Lane Quarter project covers a much wider area with impressive hard landscaping, a reduction in street clutter and at its centre a magnificent iron sculpture, by Antony Gormley. The project was undertaken through an equal partnership between the City of London and Goldman Sachs, who occupy significant buildings in the area and were concerned about vehicular movement and security;
The TEZ enabled the removal of through traffic and the creation of a new public space off Farringdon Street. St Bride Street is now a piazza and the five-ways Shoe Lane road junction has been landscaped with circular paving and granite sets, dropped kerbs with tactile paving and an almost total absence of street signs and the clutter normally associated with a traffic junction of this complexity;
The corporate approach created by officers and members within the corporation appears to match the single minded focus of the private sector and through this the partnership approach has clearly worked. Whilst there is still a great deal to be done, the achievements to date demonstrate well what can be done with the programme now developing a momentum of its own. All of which augers well for future projects in Chancery Lane, the Riverside Walk, the Barbican Area and other parts of the city.
Above all, these schemes have their roots in the disastrous and threatening times of the early 90’s but they are now transforming the City of London as a place to live, visit, relax and enjoy.

Representatives of City of London Council receiving their award for Public Realm from Ann Skippers, President of the RTPI, and awards host Justin Webb.

Key Participants

Corporation of London, Fen Court and Shoe Lane Quarter.