Residents in Fitzrovia are invited to give their views on Camden’s West End Project now that the lengthy opera is apparently grinding towards its closing act.
The West End Project is a £35m, four-year scheme to transform the area around Tottenham Court Road and includes changes to the public realm and the way traffic flows on streets including Gower Street, Bloomsbury Street and part of Shaftesbury Avenue.
“The team is currently planning the final change to two way traffic for the northern section of Gower Street between Grafton Way and Euston Road,” says Camden.
“More information on this will be shared once the programme is completed but the change is expected in spring this year.
“Work to Alfred Place [public open space] is progressing and due to be completed within the next month.
“Work continues around the St Giles Square area as the team creates a new public space. We are awaiting two new trees to add to the area and expect the work to be completed by Easter,” says Camden.
The West End Project is Camden Council’s biggest ever infrastructure scheme and it has created much needed new public open space, a restored Fitzrovia Mural, safer space for cycling, and (mostly) improved paving on Tottenham Court Road.
But it has also directed an increased amount of motor traffic down side streets — often queuing with engines running — creating what one resident has described as “the opposite of a low traffic neighbourhood”.
People have also complained that light controlled crossings don’t allow pedestrians enough time to get to the other side of the road. And there’s been a problem with buses colliding with pedestrians.
Few expected it to go smoothly — it is Camden, after all.
Now the West End Project team want you to tell them what you really think about how public money has been spent. Try to be polite.
Have your say on Camden’s West End Project. Comment until 4 March 2022.