West End Streets Group

BusinessLDN established the West End Streets Steering Group (WESt) to promote the delivery of high-quality public realm improvements in one of the UK’s most important commercial, retail, and tourist locations.

WESt comprises members of the landed estates, developers, and landowners alongside Business Improvement Districts and public sector stakeholders. The group is currently chaired by Andrea Merrington, Director of Planning and Place at The Howard de Walden Estate.

WESt convenes its members quarterly to champion selected projects to promote their delivery, working with key stakeholders including Westminster City Council, the London Borough of Camden, the Greater London Authority, and Transport for London.

WESt is currently promoting three projects: 

Marble Arch 

The proposed scheme for Marble Arch reconfigures the movement of traffic while maintaining the connectivity of the Inner Ring Road and all bus routes. Traffic is largely removed from close proximity to the Arch itself and the area at the western end of Oxford Street. This would significantly improve pedestrian and cycle access between Hyde Park, Oxford Street, Edgware Road, and the Underground station entrances, while improving road safety and air quality. The proposals also introduce additional greening, and Marble Arch would sit within a large new civic space worthy of its historic status.

Holborn Liveable Neighbourhood

This scheme will transform the streets in and around Holborn to improve conditions for walking, cycling, and public transport, facilitate the expected growth in the area, and support the local economy, creating safer, healthier, greener, and more attractive streets. Plans include creating a traffic-free environment outside of the British Museum, new green and accessible public spaces, and more segregated cycle lanes. It will also see benefits beyond the Holborn area, by connecting the major public realm transformations delivered under the West End Project to the west, Gray’s Inn Road to the east, and Strand and Aldwych to the south.

St Martin’s Lane

This project is part of the wider masterplan for Charing Cross Road, Panton Street, Orange Street, and Whitcomb Street, which will deliver traffic-free spaces, widened footways, safer cycling routes, safer junctions, and additional tree-planting. St Martin’s Lane is being reimagined as a treelined pedestrian priority public space, while the areas nestled between the National Gallery and Leicester Square would become a distinctive cluster of greener streets for people to enjoy, complemented by the creative and cultural offer of the neighbouring theatres and galleries. 

Since it was established, WESt has helped to secure transformational change to the public realm and transport movements in several key West End locations, including: 

Baker Street

Returning Baker Street to two-way traffic, including significant improvements to the public realm alongside a low-emissions neighbourhood.

Tottenham Court Road

Delivering transformational change to Tottenham Court Road through returning it to two-way traffic, the delivery of new open spaces and pocket parks alongside significant investment in the public realm along Tottenham Court Road and the ladder streets. 

Piccadilly

The £40m pedestrian-friendly revamp of Piccadilly to return it to two-way traffic alongside major improvements to streetscape and widening of the pavements, lighting, and removal of street clutter.

Hanover Square

Transforming Hanover Square into an internationally significant public space, redesigning the gardens in the centre of the square and the public realm around it to ensure it can accommodate the huge increase in pedestrian movement arising from the opening of the new Elizabeth Line station.

East Mayfair

Improving the public realm on the intricate ladder of streets that lies between the Royal Academy of Arts on Burlington Gardens, Bond Street, Regent Street, and Hanover Square. The project significantly improves conditions for pedestrians visiting the galleries, retailers, and craft tailors in the area, and provides a major and universally accessible new streetscape in front of the Royal Academy’s new entrance.

Leicester Square

Before the redesign, the area had become disconnected from its surroundings and rundown in appearance. The area was transformed to deliver significant public realm improvements and create a‘meeting place’ for any time of the day or night. The gardens were re-landscaped, the surrounding area re-paved, pedestrian safety improved, and enhanced outdoor seating was provided for workers and visitors.

Strand Aldwych

The removal of the Aldwych traffic gyratory and creation of a civic space around the St Mary Le Strand Church. Improvements include a network of new public spaces, strengthened pedestrian routes, and improved, direct, and simplified junctions and crossings for the estimated 30 million people who walk through the area annually.