Council and democracy

Design competition to transform Wellesley Road

A design competition is to be launched later in the year to select a design team that would develop a comprehensive scheme to replace the formidable barrier that currently cuts Croydon town centre in two.

With the project already accepted as one of Design for London's 100 public spaces initiative, the intention behind the competition is to find the most creative architectural talent to come up with an inspired solution. Removing the obstacle that Wellesley Road currently represents would be a highly visible manifestation of Croydon's ambitions to be regarded as London's third city.

The competition would be run by Croydon Council together with Design for London, and Transport for London. The ultimate aim of the project would be to transform Wellesley Road and Park Lane into an urban space of the highest quality, which is visually pleasing, people-friendly and full of use and activity. 

The intention to tackle Wellesley Road builds on the ideas of architect Will Alsop who has already questioned the need to maintain the road in its current six-lane form. As part of his own critically acclaimed vision for Croydon he has shown how the impact of the road could be softened and its ambience made appealing through the introduction of features such as tree planting and water features. The concept of the road as a tree-lined boulevard with wide pavements and high quality furnishings is highly achievable in the council's estimation. Ideally, the council would like to see all vehicles excluded from the road with the exception of trams and buses. However, it appreciates that the impact of changes to traffic movement will still need to be fully tested.

The council is emphasising that the intention behind the competition is to select a designer rather than a design. The initial stage of the contest would be to seek expressions of interest. This will take place at the end of September and applicants will be asked to set out the priorities they believe should be taken into account when developing the Wellesley Road corridor. The second stage, starting in January 2009, would be the competition itself with up to six practices participating. 

It is hoped a design team could be appointed in May 2009 and one of the first roles of the winning architects would be to build a detailed brief for the project in consultation with Transport for London.

Once the design has been consulted on, agreed and costed there will be a substantial amount of external funding needed to implement the scheme. A delivery strategy will be developed as an integral feature of the project. However, its scale and complexity means the transformation can be expected to be phased in over a number of years.

Said cabinet member for regeneration and economic development, Councillor Tim Pollard: "There's no doubt that in its present state, Wellesley Road creates a poor image for Croydon. It doesn't work well as a through road and it's certainly no good for pedestrians. Doing nothing will harm our proposals to regenerate central Croydon.

"Staging an international competition is an imaginative way of getting a designer on board who can come up with a world-class solution that reunites Croydon and is attractive to those who work here and visit the town. I very much look forward to the launch of the competition in late summer."