Lend Lease MP2 Walkabout & Walworth Rd – Summary of Issues Identified
We would suggest the following summary of what we feel was learned:
1. Walworth Rd.
a) Width. A key question is how wide should the Walworth Rd be in this northern part? If it is going to be 2 lanes, then that opens up all sorts of landscape/public realm opportunities (eg for narrowing crossing points between the streets on the east-side to the west-side (eg Town Hall to planned link through the Kwik-Fit site), greening the extra-wide footways (could they almost evolve into something that is more than footways that works with the retained trees on the east side of the W Rd and helps to humanise some of the newer buildings on the western side), building out the planned Town Square far further, creating a piazza-type space in front of the municipal buildings such as the Town Hall). It may be a bold aspiration but could the Walworth Rd not be 2 lanes south of Heygate St as the volumes of traffic will be largely the same as they are south of the Browning St/Manor Place junction. Obviously bus movements are a key consideration but for most of the day, as the photo below shows, there is an awful lot of redundant road space. If this was rebalanced towards those on foot, it could really begin to make being in this area, shopping in it and walking through it far more attractive.
b) Hampton Street. We would like to see consideration given to the role of Hampton Street for two reasons. The first is to allow cyclists and pedestrians to move straight across Walworth road. This would be the first relatively safe place to cross the Walworth Road after the railway bridge. An aligned lateral road into the Lend Lease development would allow easier access and routes through to the new secondary street, the park and the shopping centre. This also then opens up long views of the park from Hampton Street and Canterbury Place, rather than the view being stopped short by very tall buildings.
2). Greenery.
We don’t know what we want exactly but we want it! The mix may include SUDS, trees, bushes and other planting and tree canopy. The thing that absolutely sold the Project Centre’s scheme to local people was the vision of greenery along the road; the images showed a continuous green cover in summer (sadly not quite realised!).
There is a desire to enhance and pull 'green' out of Canterbury Place, Pullens Gardens and Pasley Park, along the lateral residential and access streets that meet the Walworth Road. This idea should be thought about strategically, because, even after all thehuge amounts of development since the 1970s in this section of West Walworth, no new green spaces have been created. Street landscaping on the west side would balance the trees outside H1, 2 & 3 and the new park behind on the eastern side of the Walworth Road.
3). Human Scale. We would like to see buildings created that are human in scale. We would like new buildings that are very contextually situated in terms of design and materiality (small scale and detailed) for the bottom 4/5 floors for sites H1, 2 & 3, for BOTH the front (facing Walworth Road) and the back (facing the new shopping street). Such a design would "mirror" and tie in visually with the handsome original Victorian block on the opposite side of the road, rather than the relatively rather featureless student blocks that have little detail or suggestions of human scale (apart from the hovering balconies). The result of these is a part of the Walworth Road that's canyon like and noisy. The "human scale" aspect should extend to the design of the public realm along the edge of H1, H2 and H3. A local and distinctive design, not bland, flat and grey like the landscape around Strata tower using natural materials, timber, boardwalks, low level planting and changes in level in the "woodland setting" in front as a way through to the new shops behind. A little bit of Potters Fields with elements of thedistinctive but useable 'Circle of Light" landscape on Old Street.
The shop units in H1, H2, H3 could be double height via mezzanines etc on the Walworth Rd - but with a shop front that is expressed as single level. These shop fronts could still let light in at the second floor via windows set into the facade; they should just not be double height and huge expanses of shop front glazing.
Human scale design for the secondary shopping street is also considered very important to its success. The image below of Grose Bros from 1916 shows a multi-level store with light at upper levels, but expressed with a strong single store shop front that's human scale at ground level. We are not looking for traditional shop fronts, but ones that follow these principles of being human in scale with lots of interest at the lower level(s) to tie into the Victorian block on the opposite side of the Walworth Road.
The low–line. While this may not be directly relevant at present, it is important to consider the opportunity of the development of the walking and cycling route along the railway line (as set out in the E&C SPD). This seemed to have overwhelming support on the walkabout, as people could see the arches being opened up between Hampton St and Amelia Street. This can act as a longer term local secondary, retail, workshop and access route on the west side of the Walworth Road and again a driver of interest in and usage of all of the northern part of the Walworth Rd.
Walworth Society – 6th March 2014