Boosting Resilience and Ecology in Battersea Business Quarter

We Made That worked with Urban Movement and Wandsworth Council to prepare a public realm strategy that establishes a strategic approach to the public realm and the highway and outlines a vision for the public realm across the Battersea Business Quarter (BBQ). The public realm strategy helps to inform the future design and quality of the streets and open spaces in and around the area and ensures an integrated approach is taken for the enhancement and management of the public realm.

The BBQ is a key area of development in Wandsworth’s Local Plan that sets out the Council’s ambitions for the Borough until 2038. The area sits right next to a new town centre which is built around the redeveloped and iconic Battersea Power Station that has now become a key focal point of the area, along with the arrival of the UK headquarters of Apple and Penguin Random House as well as the reimagined New Covent Garden Market.

With this significant change the district strategy provides a fresh identity for the disparate sites that collectively offer a distinct and crucial role for businesses, especially small businesses, to grow and develop. Planning policy envisages the area entering a period of change, encouraging intensification and greater job densities, responding to demand and increased connectivity. Investment in the public realm will help to support this process, providing safe, sustainable, and more enjoyable spaces for workers, visitors, and neighbouring communities. A new bike-sharing station, two new fully-segregated cycle tracks and walking upgrades will transform the way people move around the area.

The strategy aims to take into account current and future needs through an adaptive and flexible approach. It identifies wider public realm interventions and a series of transformation opportunities across the area, from strategy to delivery. Key proposals include public realm improvements, opportunities for long-term connections, active travel enhancements, wayfinding and signage and the celebration of the existing character.

Six overarching principles have been identified to ensure that Battersea Design and Tech Quarter will:

• Be sustainable and adapted to the climate crisis through enhanced biodiversity and improved air and noise quality
• Strengthen active travel opportunities encouraging people to feel safe, confident and able to choose walking, cycling or using public transport over private vehicles
• Be safe for all including well lit spaces, enhanced pedestrian routes and activated ground floors providing natural surveillance
• Be community-driven and inclusive providing spaces to dwell, eat, drink and come together as a business community
• Integrate wayfinding to assist navigation and promote the local identity and character of the area
• Celebrate the unique industrial character and heritage by proposing improvements to several listed and locally listed buildings as well as the distinctive railway arches

The delivery of green infrastructure and initial ‘demonstrator’ public realm projects has been prioritised. These are seen as crucial to knit the area together and offer additional amenities to attract residents, investors, and commercial operators to the area. Three quick win and high impact interventions have been prioritised for delivery and funding applications. These include:

• A gateway to Havelock Terrace that provides characterful wayfinding, new street trees and amenity space that enhance the pedestrian environment.
• Junction improvements at Ingate Place and Queenstown Road by introducing segregated cycle paths, lighting and wayfinding enhancements on bridge walls while rationalising signage to provide better visibility to businesses.
• A new amenity space and movement structure along Silverthorne Road while taking back more space for pedestrian priority, increased public realm and greening to tackle noise pollution and improve air quality.