York Way/Agar Grove/Brewery Road Healthy Junction 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. 

The York Way/Agar Grove/Brewery Road junction is a busy, traffic dominated intersection on the border of Camden and Islington. The current layout favours motor traffic and is unpleasant for pedestrians and particularly people cycling to use. Camden, with support from Islington, is proposing significant safety improvements at this location. For a summary of these changes you can watch the video below. 

Our goal is to make crossing the junction easier by introducing shorter pedestrian crossing distances and segregated cycle tracks with their own traffic signals. This proposal would enhance safety for the more vulnerable road users with minimal impact on the current vehicle flows, which has been demonstrated through traffic modelling.

Traffic counts carried out in July 2025 on York Way, just north of the junction, recorded a 7-day average of 8,600 motor vehicles and 1,900 people cycling per day. These figures show the junction is already used by a significant number of people cycling alongside heavy traffic volumes. Around 1 in every 5 road users was a cyclist, highlighting the need for safer conditions at this junction. In addition, over 1,100 pedestrians were recorded per day, demonstrating the importance of improving accessibility for pedestrians and safety at this junction.

By contributing to an area-wide network of safe, accessible streets which encourage walking and cycling, the proposal helps Camden deliver our Climate Action Plan and meet the recommendation, made by the Citizen’s Assembly on the Climate Crisis, to introduce more segregated cycle lanes within Camden. The changes also support We Make Camden and Camden’s Transport Strategy by delivering a sustainable transport system that enables an increase in walking and cycling and reduces all road casualties.

The proposed junction design, known as a Circulating Cycle Stage Junction, aims to completely separate pedestrians and people cycling from motor traffic, reducing the risk of collisions and conflicts. The main difference between this and traditional UK junction designs is that people cycling are offered a safer route around the junction. By keeping people cycling separated from the main road, they are less vulnerable to collisions with motor vehicles.

This is particularly important given that, in the past five years, there have been 15 collisions within approximately 100m of this junction involving 10 pedestrians and people cycling. In addition, the current layout has long crossing distances for pedestrians and people cycling, which is a key issue. The proposed design would tighten the junction and reduce crossing lengths, making it safer and easier for people to walk and cycle.

Another benefit of this new design is improved journey times for people cycling. People cycling would be allowed to complete a left turn movement at any time, without waiting for a green signal. In addition, a dedicated diagonal cycle crossing would help people cycling quickly and safely complete right turn movements from Agar Grove to York Way (southbound) and from Brewery Road to York Way (northbound). This proposal links with the new cycle tracks that were recently installed on York Way, continuing the physical separation of cycles and motor vehicles across a significantly exposed section of the route.

For pedestrians, the crossing experience will remain largely familiar. Pedestrians would wait on a refuge island and use a push button to activate the green signal, indicating it is safe to cross.  Mini zebra crossings would give priority to pedestrians as they cross the cycles lanes to reach these islands.  Both pedestrians and cycles receive their green signal simultaneously. Helpful countdown signals would also be provided, allowing everyone to understand how much time they have to safely reach the other side.

These proposed changes are illustrated in the scheme design plans here, and in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

Below are visualisations of what the proposals could look like, if approved following consultation.

York Way/Agar Grove/Brewery Road junction, looking northwest.

Proposed raised parallel pedestrian and cycle crossing on Agar Grove, looking eastbound.

We are now consulting on the following proposed permanent changes:

Cycling proposals

• Introducing segregated cycle lanes (where people cycling are separated and protected from traffic) around the York Way/Agar Grove/Brewery Road junction. Allowing people cycling to turn left without waiting for a signal, using dedicated left-turn by-passes that maintain pedestrian priority. This would make it safer and easier to cycle across the junction.
• Introducing signalised cycle crossings on all sides of the junction, including a diagonal cycle crossing. These would allow people cycling to cross the junction at a separate time to motor traffic, reducing the risk of cycle/vehicle collisions. 
• Introducing segregated cycle lanes on both sides of Agar Grove to create a safer environment by protecting people cycling from motor vehicles.
• Improving the cycling connection to Marquis Road/Cantelowes Road and the C50 cycle route by introducing a new raised parallel pedestrian and cycle crossing outside 152 Agar Grove.
• Installing new cycle stands to enable more people to park their cycles while visiting the area.

Walking and wheeling proposals

• Introducing shorter signalised pedestrian crossings on all sides of the junction. These would make it shorter for pedestrians to cross the road and improve safety.
• Introducing mini zebra crossings and refuge islands for pedestrians crossing the cycle lanes before crossing the main road. This would ensure pedestrians have priority when crossing the cycle lanes and provide a safe space to wait.
• Introducing countdown signals to inform pedestrians how long they have to cross the road.
• Upgrading the uncontrolled crossing outside 152 Agar Grove to a raised parallel pedestrian and cycle crossing, to provide an improved crossing for pedestrians and people cycling.
• Adding rain gardens (subject to ground condition surveys) on sections around the junction. Rain gardens are areas of planting 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 make walking more enjoyable. This would also support key objectives and measures set out in the Council’s Flood Risk Management Strategy 2022-2027 and Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan, helping to tackle the climate crisis. You can see an example of rain gardens in the photo guide at the end of this page.

Motor vehicles, parking and loading proposals

• Converting Agar Grove and Brewery Road into single lane approaches. York Way (northbound and southbound) would remain as single lane approaches. This means all traffic movements would queue together, reducing the risk of collisions caused by vehicles changing lanes through the junction.
• Introducing a new 15m ‘floating’ loading bay (max. stay 40 mins, no return within 2 hours) outside 164 Agar Grove (south side). '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 clear.
• Introducing a new 14m loading bay (max. stay 40 mins, no return within 2 hours) outside 55 Brewery Road (south side) to serve nearby businesses.
• Removing 10m of permit parking (LB Camden CA-N Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), operating Mon-Fri 08:30-18:30) outside 87 Agar Grove (north side) to accommodate the relocated bus stop and new parallel crossing.
• Removing 10m of permit parking (LB Camden CA-N CPZ, operating Mon-Fri 08:30-18:30) outside 144 Agar Grove (south side) to accommodate the new cycle facility and parallel crossing.
• Relocating 10m of resident permit parking (LB Islington IS-D CPZ, operating Mon-Fri 09:30-16:30) from outside 126 Brewery Road (north side) to outside 43 Brewery Road (south side). This is to accommodate a safe exit for cyclists rejoining Brewery Road.
• Introducing no waiting or loading restrictions around the junction (except within the loading bays).  This would be in force at all times to ensure the junction approaches remain clear of obstruction.

We have conducted detailed traffic modelling analysis in collaboration with Transport for London (TfL). This analysis shows that the proposed design operates efficiently.

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. We 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

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