In a meeting yesterday, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea approved the first phase of plans to turn Exhibition Road into a shared space between pedestrians and road vehicles.

Changes to the South Ken 'Figure of 8'

The central section of Exhibition Road will not be altered at this stage, however the area around South Kensington station will see dramatic changes to traffic flows, with the 1960s one-way system being 'unwound'. Masses of on-street parking will be removed, as Thurloe Place is to become two-way, moving traffic away from the station's northern entrance on Thurloe Street.

Buses will also be changing, with bus stops moving from the narrow pavements around the station to a centralised area on Thurloe Place, easing congestion by the station exit. The diversion of the 360 bus route down Exhibition Road rather than Queen's Gate is part of the plan, with the 70 also due to be re-routed. It has also been suggested that the 345 would be extended to terminate on Prince Consort Road, exacerbating the current problems with buses being parked all over the place, but increasing the frequency of buses available to lazy students coming out of Beit.

Live! asked for detailed plans around six months ago but has so far not received a response.

'Naked' Streets

Proposed changes to Exhibition Road and artists impressions

The changes around South Kensington station are the first part of a scheme to turn Exhibition Road into a 'Naked Street', where all street furniture is removed and pedestrians and vehicles mix freely. The road's current 4ft wide pavements are too narrow for the 10 million annual users of the local museums. Kensington and Chelsea is currently looking to TfL and central government to fund the rest of the scheme, which would see refurbishment of the South Ken tunnel, new paving the length of Exhibition Road and not a kerb or barrier in sight. A previous attempt to secure lottery funding for the project failed.

Traffic would still use the road, however removal of pay and display parking and narrowing to one lane in each direction would give much of the shared space to pedestrians. Crossings would be removed, with drivers expected to slow down in the face of drunk students wandering across the designated road area (cunningly marked out with nothing more than paint) on their way back to Prince's Gardens.

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