Southwark Bridge Road Junction

Transforming the heart of Borough and Bankside

Borough and Bankside community council is investing in the regeneration of two projects in the heart of Bankside to improve the appearance and safety of your area.

We want to hear your views on the designs to improve both

• The Southwark Bridge Road, Great Suffolk Street junction
• The retail parade along Great Suffolk Street

Southwark Bridge Road, Great Suffolk Street junction

The redesign of Southwark Bridge Road junction forms part of the Borough and Bankside Streetscape Improvement programme. Transport and urban design experts Mayer Brown have drawn up options for the redesign of the key junction in the heart of Borough and Bankside. The plans have been developed in order to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety and create a new public space on the route between Bankside and the Elephant and Castle.

Initial consultation took place on two scheme designs during September and October 2008. A summary of the consultation demonstrates that a majority of local residents and businesses favour the retention of the traffic signals which has now been incorporated into the new design. Traffic surveys and counts have been carried out and options have been assessed to ensure that the capacity of the road will not be affected and there will no net increase in traffic queuing or congestion. The final outline design was published for comment in December 2008 - note this design combines both junction and retail project below.

Download project designs and consultation documents

Improving the retail parade along Great Suffolk Street

Funding has been secured to refurbish the public realm along the retail parade at Great Suffolk Street as part of the Improving Local Retail Environments (ILRE) capital programme 2007-10. The Bankside Urban Forest framework identifies the junction and retail parade along Great Suffolk Street as a key place of exchange in Bankside.

Initial discussions have been held with the Great Suffolk Street Traders Association and an outline design which incorporates representations made by the traders is included in the design for the junction. The design seeks to widen the footways along Great Suffolk Street and improve the arrangement of parking, with new lighting, hanging baskets, street furniture. Aswell as improving the streetscape along Great Suffolk Street, the council is working in partnership with the traders to make improvements to the shop frontages, with new signage, refurbished facades, and new awnings.

Next steps

• Each individual trader is making shopfront improvements to their premises during the Summer of 2009
• Thames Water will be replacing the water main between May and July 2009.
• The final design of the retail parade has been agreed with traders, and works will start on site in July 2009 for a period of 12 weeks.
• Once Great Suffolk Street has been completed, contractors will work closely with Transport for London signals engineers to regenerate the junction at Southwark Bridge Road, due to start in October / November 2009.
• Improvements to the footway outside Costcutter on Southwark Bridge Road are due to take place in tandem with the replacement of the junction in October / November.

If you would like to know more about the scheme or would like to comment on the proposals, please contact us as below.