Charlotte Street Streateries - permanent proposals

Overview

We are seeking your views on proposals to make our trial Streateries for outdoor dining on Charlotte Street permanent; we also want your views on proposals to make the trial one-way (southbound) for motor traffic and two way for cycling on Charlotte Street permanent.  We also want your ideas on the future of this street. 

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 you to be breathing cleaner air, and for businesses to be able to flourish.  We want our streets to provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel with places for people to spend time in and enjoy, regenerating our local neighbourhood centres and high streets.  

To help, we have been making trial changes across Camden as part of our Streateries Programme: Streateries change parking bays in the road to spaces where businesses can place tables and chairs for al fresco dining (subject to an approved table and chairs licence), protected by barriers. This means pedestrians, wheelchair users and buggy users can pass safely on the pavement.

Camden’s town centres and high streets are at the heart of local communities and community life: they are places where residents, workers and visitors shop, work, socialise, and access culture and services. Camden has developed a Future High Streets vision to support our high streets to make them more resilient and so that they can continue to add to community life.

Streateries are essential for delivering this vision and bring many benefits to an area including:

• helping to revitalise streets
• creating destinations for residents and visitors to meet, socialise and spend time
• adding to street life and vibrancy,
• increasing footfall, so boosting local businesses beyond those restaurants and cafes, and helping to regenerate the wider local economy.

Over the past few years our Streateries Commonplace webpages have allowed residents to provide feedback on our Streateries, and the majority (71%) of people commenting on our Charlotte Street Streateries are happy with them. 

Streateries on Charlotte Street

Making the Streateries Permanent

We are now consulting on making the trial Streateries on Charlotte Street permanent. We are also consulting on making other trial changes on Charlotte Street permanent, including making Charlotte Street one way for motor traffic (southbound) between Rathbone Street and Percy Street, and two-way for cyclists, as detailed below. 

Having attractive outdoor dining options help to attract people to an area; we also see the Streateries on Charlotte Street as a catalyst for shaping the future of the street  - and we want you to help by giving your views!

The Streateries on Charlotte Street were first implemented as a temporary measure in 2020 and 2021 in response to the pandemic when indoor seating was limited. Parking was removed or relocated to create new spaces in the road where businesses could place tables and chairs (subject to securing a pavement licence), protected by barriers.  The Streateries on Charlotte Street were also upgraded in 2021 to wooden decking and planters to make the spaces more attractive and more accessible. In April 2023 the Streateries were extended for a further 18 months as a trial under an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) until October 2024. 

Full details on what we are proposing are below:

• Permanently keep the Streatery outside Thai Metro and Ousia at Nos. 38 – 40 Charlotte Street.  This space was created from the removal of 6.6 meters of blue badge parking, 11.9 meters of single yellow lines (loading during the hours of control, and parking outside the hours of control), and 6.2 meters of electric vehicle charging bay, to provide 24.1 meters of outdoor dining space in the road and wooden planters/barriers.  

• Permanently keep the Streatery outside Roka and Six by Nico at nos.37 - 41 Charlotte Street.  This space was created from the removal of 19.4 meters of residents' parking bays and 1.6 metres of single yellow lines to provide 21 meters of outdoor dining space in the road and wooden planters/barriers.

• Permanently keep the Streatery outside Pied a Terre at nos.32 - 34 Charlotte Street.  This space was created from the removal of 12.6 meters of residents' parking bays to provide 12.6 meters of outdoor dining space in the road, and wooden planters/barriers.

• Permanently keep the Steatery outside the Fitzroy Tavern, Boca a Boca and The Ninth, at nos.16 - 22 Charlotte Street by removing 17.9 meters of paid for parking, 6.3 meters of motorcycle parking and 0.6 metres of single yellow line, to provide 24.8 meters of outdoor dining space in the road and wooden planters/barriers. 

• Permanently keep the Streatery outside Ramen Moto, Norma, July, Palms of Goa, and Siam Central at nos.4 - 14 Charlotte Street by removing 16.1 meters of residents' parking bays and 12.1 meters of single yellow line (loading during the hours of control and parking outside the hours of control) to provide 28.2 meters of outdoor dining space in the road and wooden planters/barriers.

In addition, we propose to:

• Permanently keep 25.5 metres of loading bay outside nos. 24-30 Charlotte Street, with loading only from 7am to 4pm, a maximum stay time of 20 minutes and no return within 1 hour.  The loading bay was created from 17.9 metres of single yellow lines and 7.6 meters of paid for parking.  

• Permanently keep the one-way only direction for motor traffic, southbound, between Rathbone Street and Percy Street, except for cyclists, and permanently keep the northbound cycle lane on this section of Charlotte Street.  

• Permanently relocate 6.6 meters of blue badge disabled parking from outside no. 38 Charlotte Street to outside no. 36 Charlotte Street, replacing 6.6 meters of paid for parking there.  

In addition, we propose to permanently keep double yellow lines and double kerb blips (no parking or loading at any time) around junctions on Charlotte Street to help to deliver our Junction Protection Programme (JPP). The JPP is part of our Road Safety Action Plan to reduce road risk by removing parking within approximately 10 meters of all junctions, in line with the Highway Code, and replaces it with double yellow lines (no parking at any time), to improve sight lines and visibility for all road users.  We propose to:    

• Permanently replace 17.6 meters of single yellow lines with double yellow lines and double kerb blips (no parking or loading at any time) around the northern kerb, at the junction of Charlotte Street and Rathbone Street.  

• Permanently replace 8.1 meters of single yellow lines outside the Fitzroy Tavern pub, no.16 Charlotte Street with double yellow lines and double kerb blips (no parking or loading at any time), up to the junction with Windmill Street.

• Permanently replace 3.9 meters of single yellow line and 5.6 meters of residents' parking bay with double yellow lines and double kerb blips (no parking or loading at any time) outside no.14 Charlotte Street, up to the junction with Windmill Street. 

To view the plans please click on the link in the Related Section at the bottom of this page.

We have been working closely with Westminster City Council and are aware that they recently undertook a public consultation on Rathbone Place and Rathbone Street.  Westminster's plans would not be affected by the measures set out in this consultation for Streateries and one way traffic/two way cycling on Charlotte Street. 

Transforming Charlotte Street

As part of our longer term plans we want to support the local community and businesses on Charlotte Street.  We are working closely with Westminster City Council and The Fitzrovia Partnership (the local Business Improvement District) to develop more ambitious changes for Fitzrovia to help to deliver the Fitzrovia Village Strategy. We do not have any proposals at this stage but we would like to know your views and ideas for the future of Charlotte Street such as wider pavements, better crossings, greening and less traffic.

Why your views matter

This is your opportunity to comment.

We want to engage our local residents, businesses and stakeholders in changes that are proposed on their streets and what you think about these proposals.  

After the consultation, the Decision Report on the proposals in this consultation will be produced and published on-line 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 during the trial period, relevant policies and other data/informaiton collected during the trial.

All this information will be considered in making a recommendation in the Report about whether, at the end of the trial period, the experimental scheme should be made permanent with some changes, modified, or allowed to lapse.  

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.