Tooley Street ‘appalling’ says deputy mayor but Boris disagrees

At Mayor's Question Time Mr Malthouse said: "As a fellow cyclist you will know that the road surface is appalling, the management of pedestrian crossings is terrible, there are buses, cars, lights everywhere ... it's chaos."

The Mayor replied: "I've used Tooley Street every day for the last seven years. It seems alright to me."

Mr Malthouse continued: "Is there any chance you could press TfL to bring forward public realm improvements on Tooley Street, so that at least passengers who are being inconvenienced through the station will have a pleasant experience as they exit onto Tooley Street?"

The Mayor replied that Tooley Street will be "absolutely fantastic" once the station works are complete but "there's no earthly point in doing that in advance of the rebuild of the station".

Mr Johnson added: "Considering the incredible bottleneck that it is and the amazing amount of traffic that you force down Tooley Street, I think it functions about as well as you could conceivably expect."

The Mayor himself recently revealed in a written answer that Network Rail intends to close part of Tooley Street to eastbound traffic for around 18 months starting in 2016.

Last month we published a set of images released by local business improvement district Team London Bridge which show how Tooley Street and surrounding streets could be made more pedestrian and cycle-friendly.