URBAN REALM DESIGN |
Southampton Central Station | Southampton City Council
Urban Movement lead a small design team, which included an artist and public engagement specialists, to develop a robust concept design for Southampton’s Central Station Quarter, to a brief set by Southampton City Council and a client team made up of local residents and businesses. The key stakeholders in the consultation process included: Network Rail, Southampton University, The Mermaid Theatre, various bus operators, the Train Operating Company (TOC) and local land, property and business owners. This ambitious project has a large site area of well over 10,000m2, which includes the significant local landmarks of the Mayflower Theatre and the listed brutalist Wyndham Court as well as a small park, extensive car parking and a hard paved plaza with several large mature trees dating back to the 1960’s.
Funding for implementation came from a previous successful bid for Local Strategic Transport Funding, with the study area being one of the city’s priority locations for change, in view of the station’s role in providing a first impression of the city and access to jobs and other opportunities.
As usual, reconfiguring the previous provision for buses and taxis was key to the successful resolution of the design challenge. Bus loading and alighting is now co-located in two large `super stops’ on Wyndham Place. Moving the taxi rank to opposite the station and creating a dedicated taxi queuing area away from the main areas of traffic resolved a congestion problem on Blechynden Terrace.
In front of the station a large shared space with trees and seats was created to allow the free movement of people in and out of the station and easy vehicle access for dropping off and picking up. A large covered cycle shelter was located close to the station also helps to screen views of the public car park to the west.
The plaza at Wyndham Place was redesigned to accommodate a diagonal pedestrian desire line from the station to the Mermaid Theatre. This restructured the space and allowed a seating terrace to be created to contain the eastern half of the Plaza. The car park fronting the shops was redesigned to allow this key pedestrian movement to continue and incorporate new tree planting, without significantly affecting capacity.
A wide pedestrian promenade, with seats, now links Wyndham Place to the Mayflower Theatre in a fluid linear space that retains many of the existing mature trees and a small car park.
The important pedestrian route to the city centre, along Blechynden Terrace, now benefits from a widened footway with an oversized granite kerb, which is inscribed with texts that describe the areas local history.
The project was completed and open for use in 2015, with detail design, technical design and construction by Capita and Balfour Beatty, to a budget of close to £2.5 million.
Funding for implementation came from a previous successful bid for Local Strategic Transport Funding, with the study area being one of the city’s priority locations for change, in view of the station’s role in providing a first impression of the city and access to jobs and other opportunities.
As usual, reconfiguring the previous provision for buses and taxis was key to the successful resolution of the design challenge. Bus loading and alighting is now co-located in two large `super stops’ on Wyndham Place. Moving the taxi rank to opposite the station and creating a dedicated taxi queuing area away from the main areas of traffic resolved a congestion problem on Blechynden Terrace.
In front of the station a large shared space with trees and seats was created to allow the free movement of people in and out of the station and easy vehicle access for dropping off and picking up. A large covered cycle shelter was located close to the station also helps to screen views of the public car park to the west.
The plaza at Wyndham Place was redesigned to accommodate a diagonal pedestrian desire line from the station to the Mermaid Theatre. This restructured the space and allowed a seating terrace to be created to contain the eastern half of the Plaza. The car park fronting the shops was redesigned to allow this key pedestrian movement to continue and incorporate new tree planting, without significantly affecting capacity.
A wide pedestrian promenade, with seats, now links Wyndham Place to the Mayflower Theatre in a fluid linear space that retains many of the existing mature trees and a small car park.
The important pedestrian route to the city centre, along Blechynden Terrace, now benefits from a widened footway with an oversized granite kerb, which is inscribed with texts that describe the areas local history.
The project was completed and open for use in 2015, with detail design, technical design and construction by Capita and Balfour Beatty, to a budget of close to £2.5 million.
