Culture Mile
PCUK began its 2022 programme of field trips on a bright, January afternoon with Tim Jones and the extraordinary team involved in reshaping the Cultural Mile in the heart of the City of London. The fascinating and culturally rich tour gave great insights into the area’s challenges and exciting transformations coming forward over the next decade.
Running from Farringdon Station in the west to Moorgate Station in the east, The Cultural Mile is home to some of London’s leading cultural institutions, as well as residents and businesses. Major changes for the area include the Barbican revamp, the re-location of the Museum of London to Smithfields, the refurbishment of St Bartholomew's Hospital North Wing, along with the arrival of Crossrail. All of these culture-led projects are remarkably different but are all driven with the mission to make their homes fit for purpose in the 21st century, and notably, all of the speakers highlighted the important role the public realm has to play in their transformations.
After a welcome by Tim Jones, Culture Mile Manager, the Barbican’s Katie Matthews explained their forthcoming renewal project, which is looking at everything from ‘bogs to boilers’ at the world renowned arts centre. The Barbican will celebrate its 40th birthday this March and since its opening the centre has become embedded in the wider Barbican estate against the backdrop of changes in artistic practice and the climate crisis. The team behind the renewal project has an exciting retrofit project ahead of them and will get to bring the listed building into the 21st century. How can public spaces across the estate be used more regularly by the wider community? How can the centre become more accessible? How can spaces, no longer fit for purpose, help the Barbican maintain its heritage and artist vision but do more for its stakeholders?
Katie concluded her part of the tour in one of the hidden gems of the Barbican, up on the Podium Level, next to the Conservatory, where Tim explained that one of the great challenges facing the Barbican is the desire to activate this special public space and get visitors up onto the highways of the estate, but also ensure the space is considerate to the needs of the Barbican residents, who make up 40 percent of the population residing in the City of London. Tim and his colleague Clarrise Tavin, Group Manager of Major Programmes and Projects at City of London Corporation, made it clear for the group that as the City moves forward from COVID, expanding, prioritizing, and ensuring safe green space is a must for this core part of the Cultural Mile.
As the tour moved west along the cultural spine towards Farringdon, the focus stayed on the public realm across the Cultural Mile. Clairsse and Tim highlighted the importance of developing a design language that can be implemented across the public realm by any of the area’s stakeholders. The next time you’re in the Cultural Mile look out for shop signs, bollards, wall markers and more branded in a design created by PCUK’s Richard Wolfstrome.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Cultural Mile is the concentration of heritage across the district. The historic and listed buildings create a character unique to the City of London and thankfully their richness is leading the way for the newly created buildings coming to the area. David Taylor of Shepperd Robson led the next part of the tour around Barts Square, which has carefully stitched together a collection of existing buildings with a major new-build development—all set around a series of new public spaces. David and his team have shown how new additions can sensitively sit alongside the historic gems of the area and how the public realm can play a vital role in stitching together old and new parts of cities.
Passing through the Henry VIII Gatehouse, the group next had the privilege to stop in the North Wing of St Bartholomew’s Hospital to hear from Will Palin and learn more about the vision for the hospital. The hospital has provided continuous patient care on the site for longer than any other hospital in England. With its 900th anniversary approaching in 2023, the time has come for the hospital to consider how it can provide spaces that can better serve its community well into the future. With a more accessible north wing (home to a stunning work by William Hogarth) on the horizon, St Bart’s aims to create an even stronger link between the public and the hospital that puts heritage, health and well-being at its heart.
Hitting the western end of the Cultural Mile, the tour continued with some exciting insights from Esme Fieldhouse of Hawkins\Brown and Lauren Parker from the Museum of London about the transformations around Smithfield Market. The Museum of London will relocate from one side of the Cultural Mile at London Wall into a series of disused buildings at Smithfield. One of the most exciting aspects of the move is not just a new building for the museum, which will see the Thameslink running through the building, but how the public realm will serve as the connecting tissue bringing culture to the community and vice versa. As the re-purposed public realm around Smithfield comes to life, the team is asking such vital questions to ensure successful placemaking takes hold. As a major space in the Cultural Mile, how can this area be both formal and informal? What does it feel like in the everyday and how can the space make celebrations feel truly special? How can the public realm extend inside? What are the opportunities to create a sustainable public realm that can reuse materials no longer fit for purpose?
The tour concluded at Dominivs Group’s Holborn Viaduct site, where Director of Social Value and Community Investment Wesley Ankrah welcomed us to meanwhile community garden project Gaia’s Garden – establishing a green, youth-led space in a pre-development site, which will be reprovided on the roof-top of the new scheme. We discussed the lack of both green space and safe space for young people in the City, and the importance of the ground floor activity in the new build welcoming and connecting local people to the what will be a key new piece of public realm.
With such major projects gaining traction and momentum, immense credit is due to Tim Jones and the Cultural Mile team who are engaging and working with a diverse group of stakeholders across the area to ensure the sum of the parts will be greater than its whole.
If you want to see 21st century placemaking in action look no further than The Cultural Mile. Each site has unique challenges but all are motivated to deliver considered, sustainable and inclusive spaces for the community.
