Exhibition Road is home to the most important visitor attractions in the country, a unique collection of cultural and educational institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and Imperial College London.
For many years the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been campaigning with the institutions, Westminster City Council and Transport for London to improve Exhibition Road.
The pavements are simply too narrow to accommodate the 11.5 million visitors that flock to the area each year and, at busy times, pedestrians are forced to walk in the road. There were over 100 accidents in the area over the last three years suggesting there is an urgent need to address the problem.
The streetscape is messy and the area is dominated by traffic. Car parking along both sides and the centre of Exhibition Road makes visibility poor and the dual carriageway encourages fast driving. What’s more, the one-way system around South Kensington Station has funnelled traffic through the area with absolute priority over pedestrians and cyclists.
An independent access audit has reinforced the need for change which found conditions in Exhibition Road to be extremely poor. High kerbs and the ‘sheep pen’ crossings of the busy Cromwell Road are frequently crowded and difficult to navigate for wheelchair users and those with pushchairs – many pedestrians even risk injury by avoiding these formal crossing points all together. What’s more, recent surveys by the Council have shown that blind people simply avoid the area, reflecting the current unwelcoming environment.
Current car congestion
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