The redesign of White Hart Lane is a small step towards the critically-needed large-scale change required to address the impact of urban car use and pollution.
By looking away from the Stadium development and focusing instead on the everyday life of the street, the history and the ground conditions and the wider area, including the impact of the highly-polluted river running under the street, the project became an essay in sustainable urban drainage, and the prioritisation of the pedestrian.
The road was remodelled to deliver a narrower carriageway and wider central refuges. New visual patterning and changes in road level reduce the tendency to speed and keep traffic within the 20mph limit. The permeable paving in combination with the bioretention rain gardens store, clean and cool the polluted water coming off the road before it flows through into the river Moselle below.
Road space is reallocated to people and with planting White Hart Lane becomes a place where walking and the social life of the street is more pleasant and encourages people to see this as a destination and not a place to speed through – by car – on the way somewhere else.
The design team was led by muf in collaboration with Civic Engineers, Robert Bray Associates and Dekka.
Photographs courtesy of Robert Bray Associates
