Adeline Place Area Public Realm, Pedestrian, Cycling, and Environmental Improvements - Safe and Healthy Streets Consultation

Overview

We want our streets to have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to be able to flourish, to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles and for you to be breathing cleaner air.

We want our streets to support a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel.

As 69% of households in Camden do not own a car and public transport use remains much lower than before the pandemic, we know that safe and easy walking, cycling and scooting routes are more important than ever. Supporting and encouraging those who are able to walk and cycle, by creating safer streets will ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

In line with our Camden Transport Strategy, Climate Action Plan, and Clean Air Action Plan, and to continue supporting safe, healthy, and active travel following the pandemic, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme.

Currently Adeline Place (south of Bedford Avenue) and Bedford Square (west side) are one-way streets for all vehicles. This reduces accessibility for residents and visitors cycling in the area. Adeline Place is also part of an important walking route in the area, including Great Russell Street which provides a crucial link between the British Museum/Russell Square and Tottenham Court Road.

The former NCP basement car park at 112 Great Russell Street has been converted into a 187 bedroom hotel (planning reference 2015/3605/P as amended by 2022/5446/P). The works which are now complete included alterations to openings, walls, and fascia on ground floor elevations on Adeline Place and Great Russell Street. The Council has secured funding via a legal agreement relating to the planning permission to deliver Public Realm, Pedestrian, Cycling, and Environmental Improvements in the Adeline Place area.

As a result we have developed proposals for Safe and Healthy streets improvements in the Adeline Place area. This includes junction alterations and pavement widening, the introduction of a new Santander cycle hire docking station and cycle parking stands (both available to all) and an additional bike hangar for residents,  the planting of four trees, as well as cycle access improvements.

We are now consulting on the following proposed permanent changes in the Adeline Place area:

Walking changes:

• Junction improvements on Adeline Place at Bedford Avenue and Great Russell Street to slow traffic and make it easier, safer, and more enjoyable for pedestrians to cross the road at these locations. This would include the introduction of continuous pavements (which emphasise pedestrian priority) and pavement widening where possible at these locations as discussed in more detail below. You can see examples of these in our photo guide.

Cycling changes:

• Provision of a new Santander cycle hire docking station with 22 docking points on a pavement island on the west side of Adeline Place. This would provide more transport options to the local community and visitors to the area.
• Introducing two-way cycling (contraflow cycling where the traffic only flows one-way) on the section of Adeline Place between Bedford Avenue and Great Russell Street (northbound cycle contraflow) and on the western section of Bedford Square (southbound cycle contraflow). This would improve accessibility for people who cycle, helping them to travel more easily and safely in both directions on these sections of street which are currently one-way for all vehicles, while also helping to make the streets safer and healthier. The cycle contraflow on Adeline Place would be protected from southbound traffic by the pavement island for the Santander cycle hire docking station and a smaller island at the junction with Great Russell Street.
• Installation of a new bike hangar next to the existing one on the east side of Adeline Place, providing additional safe and secure cycle parking for residents.
• Installation of new cycle parking stands on Adeline Place to provide short stay facilities for people who cycle visiting the area.

Planting changes:

• Planting of five trees on Adeline Place (subject to ground condition surveys) to address a key objective of Camden’s Climate Action Plan by helping to provide shade, shelter on our streets and contributing to improved air quality, helping to tackle the climate crisis, and promoting biodiversity. Trees also help to soften hard landscapes and help to make walking more enjoyable.

Loading, parking and road marking changes:

• Converting two diplomatic parking bays on Adeline Place to double yellow lines to facilitate the new Santander cycle hire docking station (the diplomatic parking bays to be relocated to Great Russell Street).
• Converting a section of double yellow line on the west side of Adeline Place to a loading bay to enable servicing for the new hotel as covered in the planning permission for that development. The new loading bay would also be available to other businesses in the area.
• Converting one resident permit holder parking space to double yellow lines on Adeline Place to facilitate junction improvements at Great Russell Street and the introduction of an additional bike hangar on Adeline Place.
• Converting 11 metres of ‘pay to park’ parking bays on Great Russell Street to two diplomatic parking bays (to be relocated from Adeline Place). This would require the removal of two ‘pay to park’ parking bays on Great Russell Street.
• Converting 15 metres of taxi bays to double yellow lines on Great Russell Street at the junction with Adeline Place to improve road safety and to make it easier and safer for large vehicles to be reversed into the off-street loading bay to the rear of the Dominion Theatre.
• Converting 15 metres of ‘pay to park’ parking bays to taxi bays on Great Russell Street to facilitate the introduction of double yellow lines at the junction with Adeline Place.This would require the removal of three ‘pay to park’ parking bays on Great Russell Street.

You can view drawings of the scheme proposals in the Related section at the bottom of this page. Further details on continuous pavements, Santander cycle hire docking stations, our cycle permeability programme, and bike hangars are also provided below.

About continuous pavements at junctions

The proposals include the introduction of continuous pavements on Adeline Place at the junctions with Bedford Avenue and Great Russell Street. Continuous pavements are uninterrupted pavements that extend across a side road. They aim to give the visual impression of priority to pedestrians over motor traffic and help to improve the pedestrian environment by reducing traffic speeds and conflicts between road users, thereby improving safety for pedestrians and people who cycle. You can see an example of what a continuous pavement looks like in the photo below.

Photo of a continuous pavement on Prince of Wales Road at the junction with Craddock Street

About the proposed cycle hire docking station installation on Adeline Place

Our Transport Strategy and Cycling Action Plan outline measures to support cycle hire options in the Borough to increase availability and access to bikes for residents and visitors. The Council and Transport for London (TfL) are working together to expand TfL’s network of cycle hire docking stations across the borough.

The proposed cycle hire docking station for Adeline Place would provide a sustainable and healthy alternative to motor vehicles, enabling more journeys to be undertaken by residents and visitors to the Borough, and contributing to the Cycling Action Plan and targets to increase cycling.

Photo of a cycle hire docking station on a pavement buildout/ extension on Great Russell Street

About our Cycle Permeability Programme

Many streets in the borough are one-way for vehicles and links between streets on desired routes and Camden’s cycle network are often severed by infrastructure, traffic restrictions or highly trafficked major roads. The cycle permeability programme, which forms part of our Cycling Action Plan, aims to make more Camden streets more accessible to people who cycle and provide better connections and links through measures such as adding two-way cycling on one-way streets and cut-throughs at physical road closures. A number of such permeability improvements for people who cycle have been made in recent years at various locations across the borough. One such example near Adeline Place and Bedford Square is Bedford Avenue where two-way cycling was introduced between Adeline Place and Bloomsbury Street in December 2020. This provided a continuous and direct two-way cycle link between Bloomsbury Street and Tottenham Court Road.

About the proposed bike hangar installation on Adeline Place

Residents in Camden have told us that they would like to have more lockable cycle parking, for hire, close to where they live. We know that a lack of somewhere to keep a bike safely can put people off taking up cycling. As a result, we are rolling out a programme of installing bike hangars across the borough.

Bike hangars also help to deliver our own Transport Strategy priorities, which were strongly supported when we consulted on them, including increasing cycling, improving air quality, and making our streets and transport networks safe, accessible, and inclusive for all.

The above proposal would help us to provide 6 new and additional safe and secure cycle parking spaces for local residents. There are currently 32 residents on the waiting list for the existing bike hangar on Adeline Place which was installed on 10^th December 2021. The new bike hangar would help to meet that demand.

Cycle hangars are installed and maintained by Cyclehoop, the Council’s approved supplier. Further details are available on their website at: https://www.cyclehoop.com/product/shelters-canopies/bikehangar/

The bike hangar supplied by Cyclehoop is 1.33m high with a curved profile roof (see image below). Maintenance is covered by the annual membership fee which is currently £36 per space per year.

Photo of the existing bike hangar on Adeline Place (the additional bike hangar would be installed on the single yellow line which would need to be extended by 0.6 metres)

Why your views matter

As 69% of households in Camden do not own a car and public transport usage remains lower than pre-pandemic, we know that providing infrastructure and improvements that enable safe and easy walking, wheeling, cycling, and scooting on key routes within the borough, such as the Adeline Place area, are more important than ever. Supporting and encouraging those who can walk and cycle, by creating safer streets, will ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

Your views are important in providing feedback both on the proposed scheme as a whole, and specific elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses to the consultation questionnaire.

To view the plans and find out more about what each proposal would achieve, click on the links in the Related Section at the bottom of this page.

After the consultation, a decision report will be produced and published online, via our website. Local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. The report will consider a broad range of information including consultation responses, feedback received, relevant policies and other data/information including surveys and any relevant monitoring information.

All of this information will be considered in making a recommendation in the report about whether or not to implement the scheme. Should a decision be made to proceed, we would implement the changes under a permanent Traffic Management Order (TMO) in Spring 2024. If approved for construction, we would then carefully monitor the changes to make sure they operate effectively.

For information on how we will use data collected from this consultation read our privacy statement: Data protection, privacy and cookies - Camden Council

What happens next

After the consultation, a decision report will be produced and published online via our website. Local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. The report will consider a broad range of information including officer observations, consultation responses, feedback received during the trial period, relevant policies, and other data/information.

The report will then outline if at the end of the trial period, the experimental scheme should be made permanent, modified, or allowed to lapse. Subject to the decision to make the scheme permanent, officers will continue to monitor the scheme and will consider additional measures if necessary. These will be progressed and publicly consulted on as part of a separate scheme.