Bankside Boardwalk: TfL funding for Lavington Street project

The Bankside Boardwalk is one of four schemes across the capital funded by the Mayor of London's Future Streets Incubator Fund.

Better Bankside has received £81,400 towards the design and build of a modular boardwalk to extend the pavements on Lavington Street.

The project will test whether changing the traffic configuration can transform the busy "rat-run" between Southwark Street and Great Suffolk Street into a safer, greener and more welcoming environment more suited for walking and cycling.

The project is part of the broader Bankside Urban Forest strategy, which aims to improve the network of streets and spaces south from the riverside.

"Future Streets will make it possible to trial, in a creative and innovative way, the transformation of Lavington Street SE1 from a traffic cut-through to pleasant walking route for Bankside workers, residents and visitors to the area alike," said
Peter Williams, chief executive of Better Bankside.

"We look forward to developing and implementing this exciting project with our local partners and TfL. We hope it can be a solution that can then be applied more widely in Bankside and elsewhere in London."

Richard De Cani, TfL's managing director of planning, said: "The fabulously creative and innovative ideas we are funding as part of the Incubator Fund capture the spirit of turning London's streets into places for all to enjoy and work to deliver the vision of the Mayor's Roads Task Force.

"By trialling new ideas we are able to look to the future at how we can make our roads and public spaces work better for everyone."

The boardwalk will be commissioned through a design and build competition to be launched soon soon.

The Bankside Boardwalk will build on the recent Colourful Crossings project on Southwark Street which was also part funded through Future Streets.