West End Project (WEP) is Camden Council’s £40m investment into the area around busy Tottenham Court Road in central London. It is a pioneering biophilic landscape, and healthy streets and spaces initiative and Camden’s largest transport and public realm scheme to date. It is designed to improve air quality and local health and wellbeing and strengthen climate resilience.

Overview

London’s population is rising, and the city is likely to grow denser, hotter and more congested. West End Project unpicks decades of vehicular dominance, reimagining busy London streets and spaces to make them fit for a different future, with climate, people and nature inspiring the new designs. It helps to better manage rising footfall in the area, with the arrival of the Elizabeth Line making Tottenham Court Road station London’s third busiest station and it addresses the lack of open green space for people living in the area.

West End Project reclaims road space with 0.9 hectares of public space created. Pavements have been widened and decluttered, and 2.6km of cycle lanes added. Safety and air quality have been improved, as have connections to the British Museum and Covent Garden.

In total, ten green spaces have been created including three large public spaces and seven pocket parks. Alfred Place is now the first new park in the area for 25 years. Princes Circus takes back part of Shaftesbury Avenue and Bloomsbury Street to create a lively new square.

The scheme has removed the one-way systems on Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street reducing traffic by up to 70% during the day on TCR, and on Gower Street by up to 45%. Air quality has improved with NO2 levels 34% lower on Tottenham Court Road and 37% lower on Gower Street than in 2018.

Residents, businesses and interest groups shaped WEP, with an initial 1,300 responses to early proposals. Follow up workshops and in situ pop-ups were supported by online activity – all serving to capture hundreds of meaningful conversations and comments.

This project’s greatest success is the way it demonstrates how places can flourish once road space becomes a park or square – places for people and for nature. It has transformed the experience of the area for pedestrians, cyclists, families, workers, residents and visitors. It paves the way for all cities to function differently, as softer, kinder, calmer, more resilient and more sociably inclusive places.

Alfred Place Gardens

Running parallel to Tottenham Court Road, Alfred Place was a commonplace London back street, more busy service road and car park than anything else. Large shops back onto it, and with narrow pavements and nowhere to sit, it was a place to hurry through.

West End Project has transformed the street into a welcoming green linear park, an oasis in one of the busiest parts of the capital’ All while maintaining essential access for services and emergency vehicles.

Drivers included improving air quality, supporting greater biodiversity and reducing surface flooding. Planting provides year-round colour and new habitats. Sculptural seating, stepping stones and climbing structures offer incidental play in an area short of family play spaces.

Alfred Place Gardens has quickly become an exemplar for how cities can change for the better. It has resonated because every city and most towns have a street like Alfred Place and could benefit from change of this kind.

Princes Circus

Heavily polluted and underused, Princes Circus was hostile for pedestrians and cyclists. The area was dominated by an electricity sub-station and hemmed in by heavily trafficked roads.

A section of Shaftesbury Avenue and Bloomsbury Street have now been reclaimed to create two new, warmly lit, linked public spaces. Mature trees, dappled shade and understorey planting gives the northern square a woodland feel. To the south, the space is open and provides a great spot to meet outside the Shaftesbury Theatre. The redesign has transformed business for local cafés and shops.

Whitfield Gardens

Whitfield Gardens is a cherished community space with a long and varied history, but over recent years anti-social behaviour meant that it was underused and no longer felt safe. Planting was overgrown making it feel dark and neglected with lighting mostly borrowed from adjacent streets.

West End Project transformed Whitfield Gardens creating an open, inviting space, with communal dining making it a great place to stop for lunch in an area with heavy footfall but little outdoor seating. It has been described as London’s outdoor living room.

The design celebrates what makes the Gardens special, including the mature London Plane trees. The Fitzrovia Mural, faithfully restored by Global Street Art, once again provides a colourful and wry look at life in Fitzrovia in the 1980s. Warm lighting makes the space feel comfortable and welcoming as it transitions into the evening, with integrated lighting along the new linear timber seating.

• Project typology: Multiple projects part of one scheme – including road to park conversion and new public square

• All landscape architecture offices involved in the design of landscape: LDA Design

• Other credits:
Client: Camden Council 
Project/Cost Management: Norman Rourke Pryme
Lighting: Michael Grubb Studio
Engineer: Arcadis
Contractor: id verde
Business Improvement Districts: Fitzrovia Partnership / Central District Alliance
Early Strategy: DSDHA

• Location of the project

Alfred Place Gardens, London WC1E 7EU

Princes Circus: 243 Shaftesbury Ave, London WC2H 8EH

Whitfield Gardens: Tottenham Ct Rd, London W1T 4TB

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