Flat Iron Square
Flat Iron Square
Flat Iron Square is about to be upgraded into a fantastic new plaza in the heart of Bankside on Union Street, SE1.
The design and layout improvements will provide a great opportunity for local businesses and residents to enjoy a new public space and encourage greater use and activity in the square. Situated to the south of major new developments under construction Flat Iron Square was originally extended 10 years ago and this project seeks to make further extensions to the square and improve movement through the space.
After an extensive community consultation process, detailed design exercise, and robust lobbying, Southwark have secured £474,000 from external sources to construct the improved public space. Southwark are leading on the project and working closely with a team of organisations, including Design for London, Better Bankside, BOST and the Bankside Residents Forum. The council and local partners have worked hard to complete the detailed design for improving the square and have secured funding from the London Development Agency to help implement the improvements.
The square forms one of the first of the Bankside Urban Forestprojects improving public spaces across Bankside. This project also forms part of 'London's Great Outdoors', the Mayor of London's overall vision for transforming the capital's public spaces.
Southwark has engaged a contractor to build the scheme to the highest quality, for the best price, with minimal inconvenience for local traders during the construction period. A meeting was held with the appointed contractors in November 2010 to discuss the detail of the programme of works and construction methodology. The total project is programmed to take 3 months to construct and commenced in December 2010.
We will be working very hard to ensure that inconvenience is kept to a minimum during the construction of the scheme.
Community input
Initial investigations into the potential to make improvements to Flat Iron Square were consulted upon in November 2008. We received a large response to the consultation, with a number of very useful observations, and a variety of comments relating to the three design options. The results of the consultation demonstrated a clear majority in favour of extending the size of the existing Flat Iron Square.
A second round of consultation on the detailed design was carried out in June 2010. Again, we received a number of very helpful comments on the design. We have prepared a document of all the comments made and responses to how we have taken these account.
We have worked closely with Southwark Cyclists and Living Streets to ensure that the new space will be safe for both pedestrians and cyclists. Whilst cycling will be permitted, we have designed entry points into the space to keep cyclists well away from the retail frontages and will be using specific materials to reduce the speed of cyclists across the shared space.
The designs were amended to ensure all of the comments made as outlined above have been taken into account. By way of a summary, the scheme has
- No net loss of parking for deliveries or client parking
- The cycle lane design is safer than the existing situation, both the new routing and change in user priority will represent a real improvement for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists using the space
- The capacity of the highway network, as demonstrated to Transport for London and Southwark Highways, shows no affect from the scheme
- Access for HGV vehicles to Union Street will be retained in all current directions and clear signage will be erected to demonstrate changes to the highway layout
- We have retained vehicle access to the Southwark Bridge Business Centre and adjacent garage.
For more information about the scheme and for latest updates, please contact Dan Taylor
