Place Shaping
The Council is taking the lead in shaping the places that people live, work, play and learn in.
Place shaping is about creating and maintaining quality places within the Borough, and providing spaces to enjoy our day to day lives. The Council has committed to delivering a place shaping agenda in collaboration with local residents, businesses and other key stakeholders.
The place shaping agenda will include improving the viability and vitality of town centres, with a strong focus on project delivery; positively influencing the development at the two opportunity areas (Kensal and Earls Court); and the delivery of co-ordinated Borough wide place shaping initiatives and strategies. All projects will have a strong emphasis on community engagement and are linked to key Council documents including the Council Plan, the Local Plan, Economic Strategy and Culture Strategy.
We will deliver forward-thinking solutions that not only have short-term impact, but also offer long-term and sustainable benefits and deliver on the Council’s key priorities of creating fair, safe and green spaces. This will be delivered by creating greener city living, animating and exciting our spaces through culture, festivals and markets, building a network of local spaces and recognising and supporting the Borough as a global destination.
Future High Streets Programme
Our high streets are at the heart of our communities. They are places for social exchange and enjoyment, offering important services and shopping experiences, and for showcasing Kensington and Chelsea’s heritage, uniqueness, and culture. These ambitions, however, do not simply happen. It is vital that the Council and local communities act together to find solutions.
This has led the Council to look at the role it plays in helping to shape places, and facilitate a programme of support, innovation and change for our high streets.
The 4 key objectives of the long-term strategy
- Informing
- Visioning
- Shared Delivery Through Innovation
- Sustainable Local Management.
These objectives feed into newly developed place shaping principles for our high streets. These have been drawn from extensive community engagement and were developed in partnership with Centre for London. They work to encourage healthy high streets which combine retail, hospitality and essential services in a way that is engaging and sustainable.
Our High Street Principles
- Be places people want to visit and spend time in by offering facilities, services and attractions as well as exploring opportunities for a twilight economy.
- Be adaptable and proactive to meet future needs by allowing for and supporting innovative and creative solutions.
- Work for everyone by ensuring the provision of accessible facilities, commercial space and public realm that meets the needs of all ages and disabilities.
- Encourage active travel by ensuring provision for cycle parking/hire, a pedestrian-friendly public realm and supporting traffic reduction schemes.
- Be places that celebrate their own individual character and history by supporting their communities’ unique needs and offering bespoke cultural events and activities.
- Be part of the solution to the climate crisis by reducing emissions and adapting to changing conditions, and encouraging greening
- Be places for creativity, culture and art by supporting festivals, events and activities.
- Support existing businesses and encourage economic growth by working with and encouraging new Business Improvement Districts (BIDS), landowners and commercial tenants.
A range of activities are underway to understand and address what our high streets need. We have outlined our activities below and opportunities for you to get involved.
Local action plans
One way we are working to support our high streets is through the development of a series of local action plans, the first one in Notting Hill Gate. Local action plans are not policy documents or legislation, but a continuously updated place-based framework with ideas for future improvements.
Future High Streets Consultation
To help us understand priorities and build an evidence base for future ambitions and interventions to Kensington and Chelsea’s high streets, we asked anyone living, working, or visiting the borough to share their views on what they want to see improved and how they use their local high street. The online survey we ran received over 1,000 comments between August 2021 and February 2022. In addition, workshops were held with Residents’ Associations and members of the Council Citizens’ Panel. This input has provided valuable insights and helped inform the work programme going forward.
View the consultation findings in full.
Future High Streets Research
Centre for London (CfL) were commissioned by the Council to investigate the future of the borough’s high streets in light of the pandemic. Their research examined the effects on residents and businesses of temporary pandemic-era interventions that the Council implemented, such as al fresco dining pavement licences.
The first phase of work looked at looked at placemaking and high streets, with an in-depth analysis of Gloucester Road, Notting Hill Gate and Portobello Road. This led to a template for local action plans with proposed interventions such as more greening, seating, public art, events and walking routes. The templates draw from the Council-led high street engagement and was supplemented with CfL’s own analysis and research. They are based on the eight placemaking principles listed above, which state that good high streets combine retail, hospitality, culture and essential services in a sustainable and attractive environment.
Find out more information about the high streets research.
Kensington High Street – pilot project
We began our high streets work with a focus on Kensington High Street, developing a programme for its early recovery and scoping for a longer-term vision. The programme focussed on experimentation and testing ideas. We looked at supporting early and safe re-opening of businesses post Covid restrictions, with a series of catalyst projects which highlighted the area’s culture, communities and environment.
In partnership with Publica, we created a new visual identity for Kensington High Street using three themes: Room for Culture, Room for Ideas, and Room for Nature. This was applied to new lamppost banners, adverts for the street, and seating and planters to give the area more colour, create a consistent look across materials on the high street, and advertise what Ken High St has to offer.
Get in touch with the project team
If you have any queries, require a paper copy of the consultation, or require assistance in other languages, please contact the project team on [email protected] or call the Planning Line 020 7361 3012.