Kilburn High Road is an important local town centre and is designated as one of 35 ‘major centres’ in the Mayor’s London Plan (2010).
The high road has lots of shops – both large retailers and small independents – a market, library, restaurants, pubs, and the Tricycle Theatre and Cinema. These all help to create Kilburn’s character, and offer a wide range of goods and services to local residents as well as to evening visitors to the restaurants and other attractions.
However feedback from residents and businesses suggests that using the high road can be an intimidating and uninviting experience, particularly for shoppers:
• the road is dominated by motor traffic which brings air quality problems
• it is a road safety hotspot
• pavements are narrow and cluttered.
All this means local residents and visitors, particularly older people or those with a disability, are put off using the high road. That affects local businesses and the economic viability of the high road as a shopping street.
To help address these problems, Brent and Camden councils have been working together to develop a transport scheme that will help to transform the high street. The main objectives of the Kilburn High Road improvement scheme are to reduce the dominance of traffic on the high road, help create a place that people want to visit and spend time in, and support businesses.
We’ve already talked to some local residents and have revised our first proposals based on their feedback. The new proposals aim to create a more attractive, comfortable, and safer environment for pedestrians. We’ll do this by widening the pavements to give people on foot more room. This will:
- make traffic less dominant
- make the high road easier for people to get about on foot
- make the street more attractive
- make the road much safer.
As part of the proposed project, Brent and Camden would provide:
- more trees
- traffic calming at key junctions
- better access to bus stops.
We would also remove street clutter.
Camden and Brent have already taken some steps, including:
- ‘Countdowns’ at traffic lights
- minor upgrades to the pavement
- lighting under the bridges at Loveridge Road.