Greening Phoenix Road: Permanent Public Space and Healthy Streets Consultation

Overview

We want our streets to be safe spaces for you to walk and cycle for everyday trips, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to flourish. We want to reduce carbon emissions from road transport and for you to breathe cleaner air. We want to ensure that when we invest in our streets it provides a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel, helping us deliver our wider Transport Strategy objectives.

In Camden, 69% of households do not have access to a car;  in the St Pancras and Somers Town Ward this is 70.5%. Around 87% of all trips by Camden residents are made on foot, by bike or on public transport. Supporting and encouraging those who can walk and cycle, by creating safer, healthier streets, will also help ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most. In Somers Town, 8 in 10 properties have no private outdoor space, which highlights the local need for outdoor green space for residents to use.

During 2024 we’ve been trialling changes on Phoenix Road including traffic management and green space changes, plus permanent improvements for pedestrians. This included making Phoenix Road traffic free between Werrington Street and Chalton Street and adding a traffic restriction at the junction of Phoenix Road and Ossulston Street. This trial followed extensive community engagement on how to invest HS2 funding for re-providing green space lost due to construction works.

Planters in the traffic-free trial area of Phoenix Road

We’re now consulting on whether to make the existing trial changes permanent and on new proposals to further reduce traffic, improve road safety and create permanent green and open space in the area. The proposed project aims to reduce motor traffic and encourage those who can to walk and cycle in the area, improve local air quality, green space and biodiversity. 

Why your views matter

We want to shape our streets together with people who live, work, learn and travel through Camden. That's why we want to hear what you think of the proposed changes: 

• Making the trial traffic restrictions on Phoenix Road and Ossulston Street permanent
• Introducing a new 18-month trial southbound only system at the Chalton Street / Phoenix Road junction to further reduce through traffic
• A new green space on Phoenix Road, including a designated area for cyclists
• Adding plants and trees throughout the wider area
• Public space changes, including accessible seating, play features for children, artwork, and a dedicated open space for play and activities in the traffic-free area of Phoenix Road
• Junction safety, pedestrian crossing and pavement changes, including at the Phoenix Road / Chalton Street junction
• Parking, loading and road marking changes, including a new loading bay at the Werrington Street / Phoenix Road junction and removal of 4x resident permit bays and 5x pay-by-phone parking bays to make way for new planting

Visualisation of the proposals for the traffic-free area of Phoenix Road (View from the Phoenix Road / Werrington Street junction looking east)

To view the plans and find out more about what each proposal would achieve, click on the links 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.