Bloomsbury Square Streatery for outdoor dining

Overview

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how people in Camden live, travel and work. Since the start of the pandemic many of us have been spending more time closer to home, making our neighbourhoods more important than ever. We want our streets to be safe spaces for you to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to be able to flourish and for you to be breathing cleaner air.

COVID-19 has created new challenges for our local economy and the Council is committed to supporting our local businesses to reopen safely as lock down measures ease. We are working to provide new ways to support and boost our local high streets and town centres whilst keeping them safe and secure for our communities.

In 2020 the UK Government introduced new legislation to make it easier for businesses to apply for pavement licences for outdoor eating and drinking so that they could continue to trade, but many pavements in the borough are too narrow to allow tables and chairs outside.

During 2020 we set up a Streateries programme to support the hospitality sector so that they could continue to trade, particularly during the summer months. A Streatery is a car free outdoor dining space for restaurants, cafes and other businesses to place tables and chairs and so that pedestrians can pass safely on the pavement. .

Camden’s local Town Centres and High Streets are at the heart of local communities and Streateries have a key role to play in their successful re-opening and recovery. They help to create destinations for residents and visitors to meet and socialise, adding to street life and vibrancy, increasing footfall and regenerating the wider local economy.

To help the hospitality sector's recovery, we are now proposing new temporary Streatery locations, based on received applications for pavement licenses.  We are consulting now to help those businesses across the Borough who wish to have additional space for outdoor dining, to trade safely.

Why your views matter

We are proposing to implement a new Streatery on Bloomsbury Square, close to the junction with Vernon Place, as a trial, and we want people to have a say. We propose to:

• temporarily remove 14 metres of double yellow line outside the London Cabaret Club to provide a safe space for tables and chairs, protected by barriers around the new space.  
• access for cyclists to cut through from Vernon Place will be maintained

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

In line with new Department for Transport guidance, we are now consulting on all new and amended Safe and Healthy Street schemes so that we can engage our local residents, businesses and stakeholders in changes happening on their streets. We want to know what you think about these additional proposals.

If approved, the Streatery will be delivered using an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) as a trial during which time people will be invited to provide feedback. After 12 months of the trial we will undertake a public consultation the results of which, along with the feedback and monitoring data, will inform a decision as to whether or not to make the Streatery permanent. 

What happens next

Your views, and those of everyone who contributes to this consultation, will be analysed and considered, alongside relevant data available on the scheme and in light of how the scheme aligns with our current policy objectives, in order to put forward recommendations on whether to proceed with the proposals. A summary of this analysis will be provided in the decision report, and will be made available on the Camden Council website in due course.

If you have any other ideas for improvements to make travel safer and healthier in this area, please go to Safe Travel Camden Map  to make some suggestions.