URBAN REALM DESIGN |
Canterbury Square Urban Realm | LB Lambeth
Lambeth Council appointed Urban Movement in 2015 to develop proposals for a new public space outside Brixton Police Station. The area had been surfaced entirely in asphalt and was dominated by parked cars offering little opportunity to relax, play or socialise. The space had one major asset, however, a large mature London Plane tree roughly at its centre, which created a focal point for the design.
The design aimed to be environmentally friendly with new shrubs and tree planting. The asphalt surface was removed and replaced with self binding gravel which allows water and oxygen into the soil to the benefit of the tree. The space is bordered with a widened and de-cluttered footway, in the same dark granite paving that is used throughout Brixton, in order to connect the space with the wider town centre.
The original designs also proposed new low stone walls, the first would replace the existing police station boundary wall which is in a poor state of repair. The second wall was to be introduced to create a new ancillary space next to the funeral parlour. Both of these walls were to be low enough to sit and climb on. These items were not included in the built scheme, however, to save on costs. The final scheme did include timber balancing posts and small climbing boulders to engage children.
Several single seats, with backs and arm rests, were introduced to allow people to sit comfortably in the space, either on their own or in small groups. New cycle stands and litter bins were added and an existing Legible London sign plinth retained.
Urban Movement worked with a local artist, Ian McChesney, to produce an object to mark the route of the River Effra, which flows beneath the new square on its way through Lambeth to the Thames. The artwork was to be a circular raised cast iron piece that referenced the manholes used in Victorian times to access culverted rivers. Funding cuts, however, meant that this piece could not be realised.
This scheme was completed in summer 2016 with technical design and construction by Lambeth’s term contractor FM Conway.
The design aimed to be environmentally friendly with new shrubs and tree planting. The asphalt surface was removed and replaced with self binding gravel which allows water and oxygen into the soil to the benefit of the tree. The space is bordered with a widened and de-cluttered footway, in the same dark granite paving that is used throughout Brixton, in order to connect the space with the wider town centre.
The original designs also proposed new low stone walls, the first would replace the existing police station boundary wall which is in a poor state of repair. The second wall was to be introduced to create a new ancillary space next to the funeral parlour. Both of these walls were to be low enough to sit and climb on. These items were not included in the built scheme, however, to save on costs. The final scheme did include timber balancing posts and small climbing boulders to engage children.
Several single seats, with backs and arm rests, were introduced to allow people to sit comfortably in the space, either on their own or in small groups. New cycle stands and litter bins were added and an existing Legible London sign plinth retained.
Urban Movement worked with a local artist, Ian McChesney, to produce an object to mark the route of the River Effra, which flows beneath the new square on its way through Lambeth to the Thames. The artwork was to be a circular raised cast iron piece that referenced the manholes used in Victorian times to access culverted rivers. Funding cuts, however, meant that this piece could not be realised.
This scheme was completed in summer 2016 with technical design and construction by Lambeth’s term contractor FM Conway.
