Camden High Street Permanent Pedestrianisation Consultation

Overview

This consultation in summary 

1. We are consulting on making the trial pedestrianisation on Camden High Street Permanent

2. We are also seeking your views on ideas for a high-level plan to create a larger pedestrianised zone in the future.   

During our engagement on the trial, we heard about wider issues and ideas that would benefit Camden Town as a whole.  

If you’ve got views on Camden Town beyond the pedestrianisation, we’re running a separate consultation on a vision for Camden Town that will help guide investment and collaboration on future projects in the area. 

The pedestrianisation trial 

Across Camden 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.   

Since May 2025, we have been trialling a pedestrianised zone on Camden High Street.  

Overview map of the trial pedestrianisation 

By trialling a pedestrianised zone, we aimed to create a safer, healthier and more enjoyable street for everyone, where people can breathe clean air and businesses can thrive. 

These trial changes are set out in the Experimental Traffic Order for  Camden High Street  and Britannia Junction. 

Over the course of the trial so far, we have also carried out community and cultural events to test how the space could be used.  

We have also been gathering data and listening to feedback from local residents, visitors, businesses and commuters about how the trial has been working.  

What happened during the trial? 

Camden High Street sits at the heart of Camden as a shopping and transport hub for local residents and a world-famous destination for tourists. Tens of thousands of people visit Camden High Street each day, which previously led to large crowds and limited pavement space at peak times.  

By removing vehicle traffic on a section of the road and introducing more public space, we have:  

• Reduced overcrowding and made it more pleasant to walk / wheel and spend time on the street  

• Introduced flexible space to hold new community events and enable people to stop, rest, socialise and enjoy the street’s unique atmosphere  

• We have also collaborated with the London Festival of Architecture, image below, to introduce an innovative new public space with inclusive benches, biodiverse planters, and sustainable materials.   

Data and feedback  

We have undertaken extensive monitoring during the trial. Some of the results include:  

• The air is cleaner: Overall, the pedestrianised area and surrounding roads saw 11.6% lower levels of harmful NO2 pollution after the trial was implemented compared to the same months in the previous year, which is more than the 9.9% average decrease seen at all other air quality monitoring sites across Camden. On Camden High Street, harmful NO2 levels fell by as much as 32% in the central section between Inverness Street and Buck Street.  

• The street is safer: There have been significantly lower recorded instances of antisocial behaviour, pickpocketing and other crimes and no evidence of crime displacing to other neighbouring areas. This change was supported by us introducing additional Community Safety Officers to help with safety concerns.   

• Road safety has improved: There were no road traffic collisions on Camden High Street, both within the pedestrianised area and on the section to the north, in the nine months following the start of the pedestrianisation trial. Streets in the wider area have also seen a  28.5% reduction in the total number of collisions and a 100% reduction in the number of serious collisions compared to the same months of the year before. 

• Pedestrian volumes are stable: Just as many people are walking/wheeling on the High Street as before, but now with less overcrowding.  

• Spend on the street is stable:  Within the pedestrianised area, and surrounding streets, spending during the trial hasn’t changed from before the area was pedestrianised, both during the daytime and the evening peak period.  

• As expected, some bus journeys that have been diverted via Kentish Town Road are longer, as buses now need to travel further and have been affected by increased traffic on this road and at the Hawley Crescent junction. Since the trial started, bus journeys that are diverted around Camden High Street are on average approximately 1.5 minutes longer between 7am and 7pm. Bus journeys that continue along Kentish Town Road are taking an extra 50 seconds. However, thanks to recent changes we have made, bus journeys on Parkway are now faster by around 1m 24s on average.   

• Traffic has remained stable: We have monitored many roads across the area as part of the trial and found that, overall, total traffic volumes have not increased, data shows a 3.5% reduction across all monitored locations. As expected, there have been some traffic increases on roads where traffic is diverted around Camden High Street, such as Kentish Town Road and Hawley Crescent.  

You can find out more about the data in our Data Factsheet also included at the bottom of this page.  

What did people think of the trial?  

We ran a public survey using our Commonplace platform for the first 12 months of the trial to collect your feedback with a summary provided below. 

• Most people are enjoying the new pedestrian space: the majority of respondents (52.9%) said they liked or strongly liked the changes, with a further 6.2% saying they felt neutral about the changes. 40.9% said they disliked or strongly disliked the changes.  

• People particularly liked… 

  • More space to walk  

  • A better environment for people using the High Street 

  • Feeling encouraged to walk here  

  • Spending more time on the street  

  • Feeling safer to travel here  

• People were not sure about or disliked…  

  • Bus journeys getting worse  

  • Longer journey times by motor vehicle  

  • Traffic levels still being bad or worse 

  • Noise levels being bad or worse  

  • Walking here feeling unsafe or less safe  

Coming soon: Previously approved improvements for buses on Kentish Town Road between Camden Road and Hawley Crescent will now be delivered.  

In the first 12 months of the pedestrianisation trial, some respondents expressed concerns about longer or slower bus journeys on routes that were diverted away from the High Street.  

To address these concerns, we will now implement changes to improve bus journeys on the southern part of Kentish Town Road near the Camden Town tube station in Autumn 2026. We will add a new northbound bus lane on the southernmost part of Kentish Town Road to help to keep buses moving more smoothly on the approach to the Hawley Crescent junction.  

We previously shared these proposals for making buses a priority in this location in 2024 which were approved. However, these changes have not yet been made while we worked closely with key stakeholders, including TfL, to confirm that the final designs would be effective.  

We are now ready to make these changes. We will be installing this section of bus lane as a standalone trial which we will carefully monitor, before making a further decision on whether or not to make the bus lane on this stretch of Kentish Town Road permanent.   

What are we now consulting on? 

We want to support the 17 recommendations from Camden’s Citizens Assembly on the climate crisis, which included car free zones. This project would also help to deliver our own Transport Strategy priorities, which were strongly supported when we consulted on them, including increasing walking and cycling, improving public transport, improving air quality and making our streets and transport networks safe, accessible and inclusive for all. You can read more about our strategy on our website.

Based on the monitoring data and the feedback received from residents and stakeholders during the trial period, and in line with policies we are now:

1. Consulting on making the trial pedestrianisation on Camden High Street Permanent.
2. Also seeking your views on ideas for a high-level plan to create a larger pedestrianised area in the future.   

1. Making the trial changes permanent 

We are now proposing to make the trial Camden High Street Pedestrianisation project permanent.

This trial included:  

• A fully motor traffic free space from the junction with Parkway and Kentish Town Road, to the junction with Jamestown Road and Hawley Crescent. Northbound cycling was permitted in this area. 

• Traffic, including buses, travelled along Kentish Town Road and Hawley Crescent. 

• Loading and deliveries were facilitated on surrounding roads such as Buck Street and Jamestown Road.  

• Jamestown Road was made one way westbound for motor traffic (except cycles), from the junction with Camden High Street to Arlington Road. This created space for streateries (areas in the road protected by barriers for businesses to use for outside seating), planting. 

These trial changes are set out in the Experimental Traffic Order for  Camden High Street  and Britannia Junction. 

A decision on whether or not to make the trial permanent will be made in September 2026.  

View of the trial area

If a decision is made to make the trial permanent we would:  

• replace the large barriers with a bollard system, similar to those used in other pedestrianised areas (such as Strand Aldwych pictured below) 

• explore further improvements on Camden High Street to improve the look, feel and accessibility of the street. These changes wouldn’t happen straight away and would be subject to funding, but could include raising the road surface to pavement level and adding more benches and planting. We have included some visualisations of what this could look like below.  These images are not final designs and we would engage with the community again on these kinds of proposals before making changes.  

Strand Aldwych - example of bollards

Visualisation of outside Camden Town underground station 

Visualisation of central Camden High Street 

2. Expanding the Camden High Street  pedestrianised zone  

In addition to asking for your views on making the trial pedestrianised zone permanent we are also asking for your views on the idea to expand the pedestrianised zone.  

During the trial and during the first consultation, some local residents, businesses and other stakeholders also asked us to make the pedestrianised zone bigger. Many people told us that expanding the  pedestrianised zone would: 

• help to provide a more continuous walking/wheeling experience 

• create better links to the Camden Lock Market 

• further reduce overcrowding by creating more space 

• increase the benefits of pedestrianisation 

• make it clearer where the pedestrian zone starts and ends 

• make more space for seating and planting 

• support businesses to attract more customers and apply for tables and chairs licenses.  

We have taken onboard this feedback, and we would now like to hear your views on an expanded pedestrianised zone on Camden High Street. Our ideas for the extended pedestrian zone are high-level ideas at this stage.   

We do not yet have detailed designs for this idea, but we have created some maps to share how the expanded zone could potentially work and visualisations that you can see below.  

The high level ideas  

• An extended pedestrianised area to run north on Camden High Street to Castlehaven Road, including Hawley Crescent and Jamestown Road (between Arlington Road and Stucley Place), with two-way cycling to link Arlington Road and Chalk Farm Road. This would create more space for pedestrians and people cycling in this area. It would also create a flexible space which could be used for business spillout, planting, seating, tables and chairs licences and events etc.

• New timed loading and servicing access arrangements on Hawley Crescent and Jamestown Road. This means that at quieter times of the day, businesses can still use this space for loading and servicing.  

• Bus improvement changes on Kentish Town Road from Hawley Crescent, north to Castle Road, to support diverted buses and bus journey times.  

We would only extend the pedestrianised zone if the current trial was made permanent.  Any extension would not happen straight away but be subject to further public consultation. 

If the decision is made to make the trial permanent, we would then use the feedback gained via this consultation to produce a set of proposals for this extended area. You would then be able to share your views on the expanded area in another, further public consultation.  An indicative timeline can be found at the bottom of this page.

 

 Visualisation of the bridge over Regents Canal

Visualisation of Jamestown Road (looking west from CHS) 

Visualisation of Hawley Crescent 

Changes to traffic and buses  

To make this extended pedestrianised area possible, we would need to make some changes to the way motor vehicles travel in the area:  

• Hawley Road and Castlehaven Road (between Kentish Town Road and Chalk Farm Road) would become two-way for all motor vehicles (and cycles).  

• Northbound buses and other motor traffic would travel via Kentish Town Road, Hawley Road, and Castlehaven Road to join Chalk Farm Road.  

Buses would have further to travel between Stop X and Stop CQ (see below map), which could result in longer journey times. These journey times are not yet known and would be developed through further design and modelling. If the decision is made to make the trial pedestrianisation of Camden High Street permanent we would then review the feedback from this survey and undertake further feasibility on our idea for an extended pedestrianised zone. We would work with TfL to design changes which support reliable and convenient bus journeys through Camden Town. This could include possible bus improvement changes in the surrounding area/streets in the vicinity of Camden High Street (including, for example, potentially on Camden Road).

There may be opportunities for northbound bus routes (1, 24, 27, 31, N5, N27, N28, N31) to serve additional stops on Kentish Town Road and/or Hawley Road / Castlehaven Road, which could improve access to destinations such as Hawley Wharf, Camden Gardens and Hawley Primary School. Any new or modified bus stop locations would be subject to further design, including kerbside constraints, spacing, accessibility considerations and consultation.   

Potential rerouting map 

Loading arrangements  

To make this extended area possible, we would also need to make some changes to the way loading and deliveries would work in the area. Potential loading arrangements are shown in the map below.  

No on-street loading would be permitted within the motor traffic-free zones on Camden High Street. Loading would be possible from nearby loading bays on surrounding streets and on Jamestown Road and Hawley Crescent  between Arlington and Stucley Place at specific times only (6am – 10am). These loading times are not set in stone and would be subject to further engagement with stakeholders.  

We will work closely with key and local stakeholders to refine our loading and access proposals if we decide to explore this extended pedestrianised zone.  

Potential loading arrangements 

What happens next?   

1. Making the trial changes permanent 

A decision on making the trial permanent will be made in September 2026. 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 during the trial period, 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  

      2. Expanding the Camden High Street pedestrianised zone  

If a decision is made in September 2026 to make the trial scheme permanent, we would then consider the feedback received on the expanded pedestrianised zone to carry out feasibility work.

We would then hold another public consultation on the potential extended area in 2027.  

Indicative timeline of next steps 

The next steps are set out in the indicative timeline below. 

Indicative timeline subject to change 

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

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