Capital is seeing a revolution at street level

The character of London is changing, with gyratories, large roundabouts and one-way systems giving way to people-friendly public spaces, says Esther Kurland

Although we might not realise it, we are pretty good at creating excellent public spaces and streets in the UK. I recently hosted a delegation from NACTO (the National Association of City Transportation Officials), a coalition of city transportation departments in 46 cities across the USA, Canada and Mexico.  

NACTO were producing a new Global Street Design Guide and wanted UK input. It was quite an eye-opener to realise that we actually produce some very good schemes, ones that stand up on the international stage. The Guide, which will be available in October, will include UK examples to inspire and inform those in other places.

We don’t really sing about our street transformation work very much. We hear about how New York is creating wonderful new public spaces, how Barcelona is looking to reformat streets within their grid of main routes to create people space. But let’s not forget, we can do it too.

Living and working in London I have been lucky enough to witness a true street revolution. From the painful arguments around closing one side of Trafalgar Square to the much cheaper, and quicker, creation of a new public space called Leonard Circus in Hackney where there was once just a bog standard junction. 

Over the last 10 years or so the schemes have just kept coming. Big and small, expensive and budget, the character of London has, arguably, been changed more by our approach to its public spaces than to its new buildings.

So what next? Gyratory, large roundabout and one-way removals are on their way. These might be excellent at getting traffic through an area, but they can blight surrounding homes, businesses and development opportunities. 

With the current drive deliver more homes, these areas are being transformed so they can work as good neighbourhoods and support local movement and living requirements as well as through traffic. This normally means two-way traffic, slower speeds, more pedestrian crossings, space for cyclists, narrower carriageways, and the peninsularisation of roundabouts

Similarly, the continued densification of London and other city centres means all public space, including streets, has to work harder and harder. So, we need to find the most space and resource efficient way of moving people around, and allowing them to use public space for other things too such as shopping, relaxing, meeting friends, eating etc. 

We will probably see a continued fall in car use in inner areas, and maybe, more controversially, less bus and taxi use in city centres too. Instead, walking and cycling are growing in importance, space efficient, energy efficient and healthy ways of getting round.

Esther Kurland is director of Urban Design London. She will be speaking at Transforming London Streets.