Design of an innovative boardwalk for London’s Bankside

The innovative and experimental Bankside Boardwalk has been installed on Lavington Street in London, reclaiming some of the road as a new walkway.

The project trials a temporary reconfiguration of Lavington Street to a one-way street, and uses the now available road-space to extend the footpath at grade through the design of a new modular structure to help improve the quality of environment of Lavington Street for those on foot. 

Our appointment came as a result of a design competition held in summer 2016 having been selected from 28 organisations. A panel made up of key partners Southwark Council and Transport for London were involved in selecting the winning team.

Initially located on Lavington Street, this innovative structure will help to test how streets and pavements can be reconfigured to respond to the changing pressures that streets in cities and towns face, including accommodating increased footfall and the need to navigate safely around building sites, temporary hoardings or roadworks.

Bankside Boardwalk is commissioned as part of Bankside Urban Forest, the long-term strategy to improve the network of streets and spaces in Bankside. The project is due to be on site for six months from December 2017, during which Better Bankside will be analysing the impact of the project on users of the street. 

The boardwalk was fabricated by Trueform Group.