Great George Street - Bristol

Bristol City Council Housing Department instigated a general environmental and structural improvement of the flats in St Judes. Redefining the public space between the blocks was phase two of the operation. The street is in a high-density residential area, with four blocks of multi-story flats bordering the road, on both sides. The scheme is mainly traffic calming and parking scheme, however the method of its inception is entirely in keeping with the Home Zone idea, devised and designed in consultation with the residents. The Housing Department planned to create a small social town square between the four housing blocks, over the road space. The scheme was designed as a phase of improvements that included play equipment, improved parking, and increased communal space. There was also a demand to improve car parking and provide planting and seating.

Residents met the designers in an open-air meeting on the street, a model of the scheme was presented and this was used to canvas opinion of residents and passers by.

The level of vehicle flow through this street is low; cars give way to pedestrians that crossed on the road humps and tables. Speed through the street was around 10mph, the distance between bumps making it impractical to speed then slow, speed then slow. The plans show the arrangement of humps and bumps. The paved square replaces an allotment site that was suffering neglect and lack of use. The road space on the square is undefined; cars are restricted to a particular route by bollards and low walls. Chicanes and normal road humps are used throughout the 200 metre long street to reduce traffic speed to around 10 mph.

The main stumbling block in the implementation phase was the underground services. The service providers were determined to retain the original road surface for ease of access to their services. The Water Board (as was) threatened to take the Architects to court over this issue. The bumps and tables were then repositioned over bottlenecks in the services to minimise disruption to utility providers. This strategy appears to have worked because there is little evidence of road digging and scarring.

The biggest problem was that the council insisted on painting double yellow lines down the length of the street and so reinstating the road space as the area between the lines. This minor council operation had undone some of the most important objectives of the scheme. Observations of the scheme show another peculiarity with the parking, while there are several spaces free in the car park and on the street, people insist on parking on the yellow lines or in unmarked places, to be a matter of a few metres closer to their destination.

The Architect pointed out the lack of British and European technical information, particularly the lack of pooling of information. His perception was that there was a need for a technical reference, such as a web-site, illustrating best practice. He knew about the Leicester scheme but did not know about the Rhondda and Luton schemes.

Summary
St. Judes is a small scheme with a relatively small budget however it has achieved traffic calming and social objectives. Reclaiming an underused space and transforming it into a social square.

Copyright: Matthew Bridgestock, Home Zones Good Practice in Britain and Henbury, Bristol Feasibility Study, Publication date March 2000.

If you are interested in the full publication, e-mail Matthew