Open Street Map Cycle Map Location
Camden Council has decided to sell the Euston Road Town Hall Extension. It is an extremely important site, directly opposite St Pancras Station.
They plan to move the officers and the library into a new building at St Pancras Square in Kings Cross Central by 2014 at which stage, the Town Hall Extension will be sold. The Town Hall in Judd Street will be continue to be used as now.
Click here to see the consultation leaflet.
Camden Council is seeking views on the future use of the Town Hall Extension site. I get the impression that they expect the purchaser of the site to want new building rather than a refurbishment of the existing one.
There is one important cycling issue:
We are keen to have an east-west cycle route on the south side and parallel to the Euston Road, following Gower Place, Endsleigh Gardens, Flaxman Terrace Bidborough Street. There is a potential link from Bidborough Street to Argyle Street through the garden area of the current Town Hall Extension. This would enable the cycle route to continue on to St Chad’s Street. We understand this used to be a public thoroughfare before the building of the Town Hall Extension.
We should therefore request that space should be allocated for a shared use (walking and cycling) path between Argyle Street and Bidborough Street. Preferably this should be as soon as the council vacates the site (rather than waiting for the development).
Other cycling issues?
Height of the New Building?
I personally feel very strongly that the new building should not be any bigger than the exiting one. I wouldn’t like to see a tower block loom large over St Pancras Station. Can anyone think of a cycling slant on this issue?
CCC’s response
This response to the consultation from Camden on Town Hall Extension is from Camden Cycling Campaign, the local borough group of London Cycling Campaign (LCC). We have over 600 members and represent the interests of cyclists living or working in the borough of Camden. We consulted our members by email on this issue and this response reflects the views of the membership.
There is one very important cycling issue:
- In order to avoid cycling on the very congested an polluted Euston Road, cyclists need to have an east-west cycle parallel route on the south side. It is already possible to construct such a route via Gower Place, Endsleigh Gardens, Flaxman Terrace and Bidborough Street.
- There is a potential link from Bidborough Street to Argyle Street through the garden area of the current Town Hall Extension. This would enable the cycle route to continue on to St Chad’s Street. We understand this used to be a public thoroughfare before the building of the Town Hall Extension.
- We therefore request that space should be allocated for a shared use (walking and cycling) path between Argyle Street and Bidborough Street. This should be made available as soon as the council vacates the site, rather than waiting for the development.
In addition, we request that you ensure that an appropriate increase in cycle parking to go hand-in-hand with any increase in height.
