LDA Design’s work with Camden Council to make some of the borough’s public realm in central London cleaner, greener and safer has won the 2019 NLA Public Spaces – Unbuilt award. The West End Projects garnered praise from the NLA judges for creating more walkable spaces for the capital.
Delighted with the win, LDA Design Director and West End Projects lead, Sophie Thompson, said that this scheme “demonstrates public realm’s potential as an antidote for some of the most pressing problems of today, including air quality, loneliness and climate breakdown.”
The project will transform key spaces in a way that enables each area to speak of its place.
Princes Circus offers generous, easier to walk connections between Covent Garden and the British Museum. A ‘woodland glade’ celebrates the London plane tree and provides an oasis of calm. This will become a social place too, with street food and cafés. A fully equipped events space with pop-up power adds to its usefulness.
Alfred Place will close a street to become the first new public park in this area in 100 years. Lounging lawns and a distinctive meandering sculptural seat will soon make it hard to remember this was once a place for cars not people.
Though overgrown and blighted by anti-social behaviour, Whitfield Gardens, off-Tottenham Court Road, remains a cherished local space. These new proposals will make this an inviting place for local residents and for workers who want to ‘lunch and linger’. Rainwater gardens will add interest and delight. The Fitzrovia Mural, a well-known and loved piece of local art and 1980s satire, will be restored.
Four new pocket parks will also be created along Tottenham Court Road, allowing opportunities to grab a sandwich outdoors, catch up with friends or savour a quiet moment amidst the hustle and bustle of central London.
