Kilburn to West Hampstead (C51) Safe and Healthy Streets Consultation

Overview

We want to transform our streets, so they have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely, for you to breathe cleaner air, to reduce carbon emissions from road transport, and for businesses to flourish. We want to ensure that our streets provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel, helping us to deliver our wider Transport Strategy objectives.

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

Visualisation of what the permanent proposals could look like, if approved following consultation. Location: junction of Greville Road, Kilburn Priory and Springfield Lane.

The main aim of the Kilburn to West Hampstead (C51) Safe and Healthy Streets project is to improve the facilities for those who walk and cycle through Kilburn and West Hampstead, supporting the Council’s Transport Strategy and the 2025-26 to 2027-28 Delivery Plan.

The proposals would also help provide a route for cyclists from the West Hampstead and Kilburn areas into the City of Westminster. Westminster City Council and Transport for London have previously consulted on the Cycleway 51 (C51) route between St John's Wood and Marylebone and are currently consulting on proposals that link this section to Greville Road and the Camden boundary. Further information on these consultations can be found on the  Westminster City Council C51 consultation pages.

The map below provides an overview of the C51 route, including the proposed route within Camden (purple), and the proposed route within the City of Westminster (pink).

What are we proposing?

To view the proposal plans click on the links in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

Through Traffic Motor Vehicle Restrictions

Greville Road and Kilburn Priory are located on Camden’s local street network and are primarily residential in nature. Traffic counts indicate that 776 vehicles travel south on Kilburn Priory (24 hour weekday average) between Belsize Road and Langtry Road, and that 554 (24 hour weekday average) vehicles travel southeast along Greville Road, between Kilburn Priory and Greville Place.

We are proposing to introduce the following measures on these streets to reduce through-motor traffic movements along the C51 route:

Kilburn Priory Bridge

• Creating a pedestrian and cycle only route across Kilburn Priory bridge (between 197 Priory Road and Langtry Road) by closing the bridge to motor vehicles. This would reduce through traffic volumes along the route and improve pedestrian and cycle connectivity in the area by preventing through traffic from using Kilburn Priory to travel from the Abbey Road and Belsize Road area to the A5 – Kilburn High Road. Kilburn Priory is currently one way southbound between Belsize Road and Langtry Road, and therefore the proposals do not affect how people access their properties north of the proposed motor vehicle restriction. The proposals will mean that access to the area south of the proposed motor vehicle restriction, for vehicles coming from the Belsize Road and Abbey Road areas north of the restriction, will be via Belsize Road and Kilburn High Road, and Abbey Road and Greville Place.

Mortimer Crescent / Greville Road junction

• Restrict vehicles from travelling southeast along Greville Road at the junction of Greville Road and Mortimer Crescent. Cyclists would still be able to travel through this restriction in both directions, and Greville Road would remain two-way on both sides of the restriction. This would reduce through traffic volumes along the route and improve pedestrian and cycle connectivity by preventing through traffic using Greville Road to travel from the A5 – Kilburn High Road to Greville Place and Boundary Road. Motor vehicle access to the area from the south and east will remain largely the same as existing, as vehicles will be able to travel northeast along Greville Road through the restriction. The proposals will mean that motor vehicles leaving the area will be required to use Kilburn Priory and the A5 – Kilburn High Road.

These traffic restrictions would be introduced as a trial and would be monitored over a 12-18 month period.

Other Safe and Healthy Streets proposals

We are also proposing additional pedestrian, cycle, road safety, public realm and environmental improvements along the route and in the area, as detailed below.

Abbey Road/Priory Road junction:

• Convert the existing zebra crossing, located to the east of the junction, to a raised parallel crossing which would enable those who cycle to cross safely. It would also provide a level crossing for pedestrians, from pavement to pavement, and help slow vehicles. This would help improve pedestrian and cycle connectivity in the area.
• Introduce continuous pavements to reduce vehicle speeds and show pedestrian priority.

You can see an example of parallel crossings and continuous pavements in our photo guide.

Belsize Road/Priory Road and Belsize Road/Priory Terrace junctions:

• Introduce a 7.5 tonne weight limit on Priory Road and Priory Terrace, between Belsize Road and Abbey Road. This would restrict HGVs from using Priory Road and Priory Terrace as through routes, between Belsize Road and Abbey Road, creating a safer and quieter environment for those who walk and cycle. 

Springfield Lane/Kilburn Priory/Greville Road junction

• Introduce continuous pavements on Springfield Lane and Greville Road to help reduce vehicle speeds and provide pedestrian priority.
• Widen the south east pavement on Greville Road and provide a rain garden and planting. This would reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians and slow turning vehicles. Rains gardens are areas of planting which also soak up rainwater during heavy rainfall reducing the risk of local flooding. The rain gardens and planting would support Camden’s Climate Action Plan by reducing CO2, improving biodiversity, enhancing aesthetics, and managing rainwater. Rain gardens also help to soften hard landscapes and help to make walking more enjoyable. You can see an example of a rain garden in our photo guide.

We are also proposing to add 10 cycle hangars and two dockless hire bays along the route.

The proposed cycle hangars would provide local residents with safe and secure cycle storage, helping to encourage residents in the area to cycle. There are 10 cycle hangars (60 covered and secure spaces) currently in the Kilburn Ward and 166 residents on the waiting list for spaces, demonstrating the significant demand for more cycle hangars in the area.

The new proposed dockless hire bays would also help to encourage residents and visitors to the area to cycle and e-scoot more (and supporting the rental e-scooter trial in Camden) by creating designated parking places to help accommodate the growing demand for dockless bike usage in the borough.

Further details on the location of the proposed hangars and dockless hire bays can be found in the proposed plans and the table below.

In addition to the proposed parking bay changes shown above, further changes to parking bays would be needed along the route and the surrounding area to create the proposed continuous pavements, and the motor vehicle restrictions on Greville Road and Kilburn Priory.

The table below shows the total overall parking changes proposed to accommodate all of the proposals within the scheme; including the dockless hire bays, cycle hangars, the continuous pavements and the motor vehicle restrictions.

Why your views matter

Your views are important in providing feedback on the proposed project as a whole, and elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses to the questions on the pages that follow. We would be pleased to hear your views, as well as any alternative suggestions or objections you may have to any aspect of what we are proposing. 

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, relevant policies, and other data/information.

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