Shaftesbury Avenue Area 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. Shaftesbury Avenue near the junction with Stacey Street looking northeast-bound.

Shaftesbury Avenue is a busy route in the south of the borough, used by a high number of people travelling through the area. It is also an important destination, home to Seven Dials, theatres and mixed-use businesses. The road has long been dominated by motor traffic, making the area hostile to visit and travel through for most road users.

The Shaftesbury Avenue corridor has been highlighted as a top potential connection in the strategic cycle analysis of the Transport for London’s Cycling Action Plan 2. A traffic survey conducted in April 2022 indicates that cycle volumes are high, with a 7-day average of over 1,400 cyclists per day. Shaftesbury Avenue has also been identified in the Camden Transport Strategy (CTS) Delivery Plan, as a high priority for road safety interventions, ranking as the second highest priority corridor across the Borough.

Based on the above, we are proposing changes to make it safer to walk, cycle and visit the area sustainably. Additionally, the scheme aims to improve the key area north of Shaftesbury Avenue, enhancing the connection between Seven Dials and the St Giles Square/Tottenham Court Road area. The proposed changes would introduce around 550m of new segregated cycle infrastructure, in both directions, contributing to the Council’s target of 40km of segregated cycle infrastructure, as part of our primary cycle network in the Borough.

To view the plans and to find out more about what the proposal would achieve, click on the links in the Related Section at the bottom of this page. 

We are now consulting on the following proposed permanent changes:

1. Shaftesbury Avenue Walking and Cycling Improvements

• Converting the existing advisory southbound cycle lane on Shaftesbury Avenue, north of the junction with St Giles High Street (outside Shaftesbury Theatre), into a segregated cycle lane to offer more protection to cyclists.
• Introducing segregated cycle lanes on both sides of Shaftesbury Avenue, between Charing Cross Road and St Giles High Street. This is to create a safer environment by protecting cyclists from motor vehicles. Further discussions with Westminster City Council and additional design changes would be required to ensure connectivity and safety around the Cambridge Circus Junction, at the western extent of the scheme (any changes at the junction would be subject to a seperate consultation).
• Creating rain gardens (areas of planting which soak up rainwater) on sections of the southern side of Shaftesbury Avenue that would act as physical segregation for cyclists (subject to ground condition surveys). This would support a key objective of Camden’s Climate Action Plan by removing some CO2 out of the atmosphere, helping to tackle the climate crisis. Adding new plants would also create more areas which could soak up water during heavy rainfall, improve local biodiversity by adding new habitats for nature and improve how the area looks and feels. Rain gardens also help to soften hard landscapes and help to make walking more enjoyable.
• Banning the left turn, except for cyclists and vehicles under 7.5t, from Stacey Street onto Shaftesbury Avenue. This is because large vehicles turning left encroach the opposite lane in existing conditions, posing a safety risk to all road users.
• Creating a pedestrian and cycles only zone on St Giles Passage (i.e. closing St Giles Passage to motor vehicles). This would improve pedestrian and cycle connectivity in the area.
• Relocating the existing zebra crossing on Shaftesbury Avenue from the west of the junction with Mercer Street to the east of the junction with Mercer Street, and converting it into a raised parallel crossing, to provide an improved crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.
• Converting the existing zebra crossing outside 188 Shaftesbury Avenue (near Neal Street/Monmouth Street) into a raised parallel (walking and cycling) priority crossing, and creating a pedestrian and cycles shared use area, to provide an improved crossing for pedestrians and cyclists. 
• Relocating the existing Legible London wayfinding sign on Shaftesbury Avenue closer to the junction with St Giles High Street, to improve wayfinding for pedestrians.
• Adding continuous pavements (see photo guide for example) across Stacey Street and Mercer Street, at the junctions with Shaftesbury Avenue, to reduce vehicle speeds and provide pedestrian priority.
• Retaining the loading bay outside 196 Shaftesbury Avenue (south side) and converting it into a ‘floating’ bay. 'Floating' bays are bays located between the cycle lane and the vehicle traffic lane. This is to provide loading provision without affecting general road traffic while keeping segregated cycling facilities.
• Introducing a new 16.5 metre loading bay outside 162 Shaftesbury Avenue (south side), in form of a 'floating bay', to provide loading provision without affecting general road traffic while retaining segregated cycling facilities.
• To enable the above changes, several adjustments to waiting and loading on Shaftesbury Avenue and New Compton Street are proposed. However, there will be no net loss or gain of residents' parking spaces. These changes are detailed in the table below. A Parking and Loading Plan (and proposed changes for each type of kerbside provision) is provided with more detailed information.

Existing and Proposed Parking and Loading

Shaftesbury Avenue is located in the Holborn and Covent Garden (CA-C) Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ). The CPZ operates Monday to Saturday between 08:30 and 18:30. Resident bays are controlled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Key 

• SA(N) = Shaftesbury Avenue north side
• SA(S) = Shaftesbury Avenue south side
• NCS = New Compton Street  
• SS = Stacey Street
• DS = Denmark Street

Why your views matter

Your views are important in providing feedback on the proposed scheme as a whole, and elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses to the questions on the pages that follow. The Council will 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

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, relevant policies, and other data/information.