Camden High Street Pedestrianisation Consultation

Overview

Improving Camden High Street

Camden High Street is at the heart of Camden as a shopping and transport hub for locals and a world-famous destination for tourists. At peak times, as many as 40,000 people visit Camden High Street at the same time, meaning it can get overcrowded. High levels of motor vehicle traffic can lead to conflict with pedestrians overspilling from the pavement, worsen air quality, and negatively affect visitors’ experience on Camden High Street.

Summary of our Proposals

We're proposing to create a motor traffic free section of Camden High Street – from the junction with Parkway and Kentish Town Road, to the junction with Jamestown Road and Hawley Crescent. We would trial this change, over a maximum of 18 months, to create a safer, healthier, and more enjoyable Camden High Street. Explore the ideas or read on for more details on our proposals: 

The proposals include:

• A fully motor traffic free space from the junction with Parkway and Kentish Town Road, to the junction with Jamestown Road and Hawley Crescent. This would mean no access to motor vehicles to this section of Camden High Street, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, except for emergency services and some refuse collection vehicles.  Northbound cycling would be kept.
• Traffic, including buses, would travel along Kentish Town Road and Hawley Crescent.
• New loading and delivery areas are proposed on roads surrounding Camden High Street to support local businesses.
• Making Jamestown Road one way westbound for motor traffic, from the junction with Camden High Street (except cycles) and creating space for streateries (areas in the road protected by barriers for businesses to use for outside seating), planting.
• The new motor traffic free space on the High Street would also create the opportunity to expand cultural activities into the street, bringing together Camden’s diverse communities to celebrate the things that make Camden Town both a local and a global neighbourhood. We hope to work with residents, cultural institutions, businesses, and other stakeholders to curate a programme for how this space could be used during the trial.

Why are we proposing to trial removing motor traffic from the High Street?

Camden High Street is an iconic destination with up to 40,000 visitors at any one time.

Pavements can become congested and overcrowded, often people end up walking in the road. Combined with high levels of motor traffic, this can lead to situations where pedestrians are sharing the road with motor vehicles. This can negatively affect visitors’ experience of Camden High Street. 

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

Creating pedestrian-friendly spaces has lots of benefits including:

• Creating a safer and more enjoyable environment for pedestrians
• Making it safer to travel and encouraging more active and sustainable travel, like walking, wheeling or cycling
• Encouraging people to spend more time on the High Street and support local businesses

Our Proposal in Detail

We're proposing to trial a motor traffic free section of Camden High Street from the junction with Parkway and Kentish Town Road (known as Britannia Junction), to the junction with Hawley Crescent and Jamestown Road, to create new space for people on the High Street. We would trial this change over a maximum of 18 months to create a safer, more attractive and enjoyable Camden High Street.

Overview Map of Proposed Changes

On Camden High Street:

• A fully motor traffic free space from the junction with Parkway and Kentish Town Road, to the junction with Jamestown Road and Hawley Crescent. This would mean no access to motor vehicles to this section of Camden High Street, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, except for emergency services and some refuse collection vehicles.  Northbound cycling would be retained.
• An arts and cultural programme delivered in collaboration with the local community, cultural organisations and businesses that celebrates Camden’s unique identity.

On Kentish Town Road and Hawley Crescent

• Motor traffic, including buses, would travel via Kentish Town Road and Hawley Crescent, where they would then re-join Camden High Street. At the moment, buses travel from Stop X direct to Stop CQ without a break in the journey. As there are no stops on the bus routes that travel through the proposed traffic-free section of Camden High Street, under our proposal’s buses would continue to travel from Stop X to Stop CQ without stopping at any new bus stops. Currently, traffic is only permitted northbound on Camden High Street between Mornington Crescent and Chalk Farm Road. Traffic is also only permitted northbound on Kentish Town Road between Parkway and Hawley Crescent.
• Southbound routes are not affected by the changes proposed in this consultation.

Map of proposed changes to bus routes

On Buck Street and Arlington Road

• We're proposing several new loading bays on roads near Camden High Street to create more space for delivery vehicles and support local businesses and residents.
• We are proposing that Buck Street becomes an area for loading and “portering”, which is where goods can be dropped off, sorted, and then transported to businesses and residents by foot-based porters using smaller walkable trolleys. Motor vehicles would be able to enter Buck Street from Hawley Crescent (via Stucley Place). These motor vehicles would then be able to exit Buck Street onto Kentish Town Road.
• We're working with consultants from MP Smarter Travel to see whether a portering trial could work for local businesses. They will be visiting the area throughout the consultation period to speak with businesses about their loading and delivery needs in more detail and look at what additional support they might need.

Map showing proposed changes to loading and delivery on Buck Street

Map showing existing and proposed new loading bays surrounding Camden High Street. You can also view an overview of the proposed loading to support deliveries to local businesses and residents.

On Jamestown Road

• On Jamestown Road we are proposing to make the road one way (west bound) between Camden High Street and Arlington Road. This change would enable more space to be provided for planting and Streateries - outdoor seating areas in the road protected by barriers where people can enjoy food from their favourite local hospitality offer.
• Paid parking bays would be converted into Streateries and loading bays.
• A new cycle lane would be introduced to support two-way cycling and encourage more active travel.

Map showing proposed changes to Jamestown Road.

Why your views matter

As over 90% of trips for shopping purposes across Camden are made by walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport, we know that providing safe and accessible streets is more important than ever. We want people to have an excellent experience of Camden High Street, whether you are a resident, worker, business owner or visitor.  We also know that Camden Town is a significant town centre for local people and the people who travel from around the world to experience the rich culture the area has to offer. We feel that Camden High Street could be doing more to celebrate and improve people’s experiences!

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

You can some more information on the scheme in our consultation images which are also in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

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

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

The proposed Camden High Street changes, if approved, would be implemented as a trial, using temporary materials, under an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) for a maximum of 18 months. Introducing these changes as a trial would enable us to study closely how these changes work in practice and to make adjustments where these are needed. If approved for a trial, a full public consultation on whether or not to make these changes permanent would be carried out after 12 months of the start of the trial. The feedback from that 12 month post-trial consultation, monitoring data collected, feedback from residents and stakeholders received during the ETO period, and relevant policies, would then help inform the Council’s decision as to whether, at the end of the trial period, the scheme should be made permanent, modified (and, if so, whether with or without changes) or allowed to lapse. 

Separate from this scheme, we are also running a consultation for changes around Camden Street including a series of motor vehicle restrictions to re-direct traffic away from Camden's local street network back onto the main road network, a healthy school street for Our Lady's Catholic Primary School, and other changes to improve the area for pedestrians and people who cycle.

What happens next

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

The proposed Camden High Street changes, if approved, would be implemented as a trial, using temporary materials, under an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) for a maximum of 18 months. Introducing these changes as a trial would enable us to study closely how these changes work in practice and to make adjustments where these are needed. If approved for a trial, a full public consultation on whether or not to make these changes permanent would be carried out after 12 months of the start of the trial. The feedback from that 12 month post-trial consultation, monitoring data collected, feedback from residents and stakeholders received during the ETO period, and relevant policies, would then help inform the Council’s decision as to whether, at the end of the trial period, the scheme should be made permanent, modified (and, if so, whether with or without changes) or allowed to lapse.