A major urban route into London, Kensington High Street cuts through the heart of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An important commercial and retail street, the streetscape is surrounded by some of the most desirable residential property in the capital.

In recognition of the importance of the duality of the street’s function and location, the Borough initiated a radical programme of streetscape improvements in the mid-1990s. The aim was to retain the viability of the High Street as a major shopping destination, when confronted with newer competing retail developments, and also to improve the quality of the public realm for both residents and visitors.

The brief for Woodhouse developed out of two important events: the first was the decision by the Borough that the new street must accommodate existing traffic flows and the second was the appointment of Project Centre, whose brief was to develop integrated traffic engineering and streetscape design proposals.

The Project Centre’s design objectives proposed a fundamental move away from standard traffic engineering solutions toward a more radical streetscape design. This approach redressed the balance between vehicles and pedestrians to create a coherent, legible and accessible street. The design brief included the removal of all but the most necessary street furniture, particularly guardrails or bollards, to increase pedestrian space without compromising vehicle capacity.

Woodhouse collaborated with the design team to combine standard urban realm elements in innovative ways, yet preserve clarity and safety for motorists and pedestrians alike. The resulting reduction in street clutter was directly in line with the Woodhouse philosophy of coordination of design, materials and finishes across a landscape.

The removal or reconfiguration of numerous traffic signs, pedestrian crossing controls and railings has created an environment where pedestrian and motorist are now equal.

The fundamental, yet seemingly extreme, street clutter removal centred on highway guardrails. Around 715m of guardrails were removed from the streetscape, with a mere 60m replaced by bespoke stainless steel Geo railing. With only three horizontal rails, these are visually less dominant than many standard guardrails on the market. The new guardrail allows clear sight lines for drivers and pedestrians to visually engage each other and feedback from wheelchair users has been particularly appreciative since they can both see and be seen when crossing the road. Other street furniture has been reduced in both size and number, with 40 litter bins reduced to just 5 yet no discernable impact on litter levels.

Broader areas of pedestrian thoroughfare have enabled several Geo seats to be installed with minimal obstruction. By spacing Geo Pennant cycle stands more widely than normal within the central reserve, cycle parking provision has been increased yet more random pedestrian crossing has been encouraged. Woodhouse also developed and installed low-level, stainless steel, hoop-mounted traffic signs and to replace the standard 'keep left' illuminated bollards and ‘no entry’ signs. The adoption of a limited palette of high quality materials (predominantly stainless steel) has significantly improved the appearance of the street and yet lowered maintenance costs.

Innovative light columns were developed to support discrete carriageway and footway luminaries, at 10m and 5m in height respectively. The quality of illumination was also dramatically improved through the specification of white light, with differing colour temperatures for the carriageway and footway luminaries. Columns were individually designed and manufactured by Woodhouse to accommodate mountings for both traffic and pedestrian signals at pelican crossings. In addition, columns are also able to support litter bins, ash and gum bins, pedestrian signage, festival lighting and banner brackets for specific activity or hanging baskets. This ground-breaking design approach has been recognised as a benchmark for multi-purpose columns and the key principles have been adopted across many other projects upon which Woodhouse has consulted.

Woodhouse are honoured to have been involved in such a prestigious project that so closely mirrored both our design ethic and business values. We continue to work on the project today, carrying out routine cleaning and maintenance of the products to ensure they remain in good working order.

The project has received significant recognition, winning both a Civic Trust Award for Environmental Design 2004 and Best Transport Lighting Scheme 2002 at The Lighting Design Awards and also receiving two nominations at the London Transport Awards 2004. In addition, the quality of this remarkable streetscape continues to receive much attention from other Local Authorities and urban design professionals as an exemplar of modern streetscape design.