Clapham Junction paving: update on the examplar scheme

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As I stumbled recently on an old article (last year on the Council’s website) about the revamp of Clapham Junction with the Council’s “Exemplar Scheme” I thought it was time to give a little update.
The exemplar scheme is the major work on roads and pavements that started 3 years ago and included the revamp of the crossing at the Junction.
The first stage of Clapham Junction’s street improvement project was completed in 2012 leaving behind a more attractive and pedestrian friendly area around the junction.
The St John’s Hill / Lavender Hill junction has been completely remodelled, pavements widened, a new diagonal pedestrian crossing installed and unnecessary street clutter taken away.

Clapham Junction before the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.
Clapham Junction before the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.
Clapham Junction after the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.
Clapham Junction after the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.

Now the work is concentrating on St John’s Road. It started in April and is meant to stay for 30-34 weeks (~28 weeks for the footpath and ~6 weeks for the carriage works). The first phase was in front of Debenhams and TK-Maxx and now they are moving along the street to change the pavements.
The road treatment will be similar to the junction between Eccles, Lavender Sweep and Lavender Hill roads for the 2 segments in front of the public spaces ending Aliwal Road and Eckstein Road: no curve and small pavements similar to the larger ones used on the footpath.
Road treatment Lavender hill-Lavender Sweep
At the end of the refurbishment, St John’s Road is to become the first 20mph zone in Clapham Junction.
At the same time, they are also working on Falcon Road in front of the new hotel where a (apparently already popular) café has opened. The will finish the paving zone joining the crossing between Falcon Road and Mossbury Road and then Mossbury Road/Lavender Hill.
There are further plans for pavement on Mossbury Road and further St John’s Hill but not definite time-line nor funding that we are aware of.

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CJI editor and Clapham Junction Action Group co-founder and coordinator since 2008, Cyril has lived in Clapham Junction since 2001.
He is also funder and CEO of Habilis-Digital Ltd, a digital agency creating and managing websites and Internet solutions.

11 Comments

  1. The repaving of the Clapham Junction area, including St. John’s Road, is now nearly complete. The work seems to have been done with great care and could potentially enhance the area. Unfortunately, however, the lack of street cleaning (i.e. scrubbing or jet-spraying with water as is done in many European cities) means that the paving already looks disgusting. The nature of the paving seems in fact to worsen the effect of spillages and general filth. I have raised this matter with the Council in the past and got nowhere. I would be grateful for any support in trying to get the streets washed on a regular basis. Otherwise, the dirt will remain until the paving stones are replaced years hence. If you feel strongly about this, please write to Wandsworth Council. Thank you.

    • I agree but in theory water pressure should do the job (and I assume that actually the nature of the stones makes it easier than with the little redish paving… other it’s just a guess).
      It is clear than in very areas like St John’s Road, that sort of cleaning should be done very regularly. Have you raised the matter with local councillors and/or during surgery?

  2. Julia’s right. The new pavements look disgusting even before the job is complete. There are dark stains and places that only a strong scrubbing machine could clean off. People were talking about exactly that at my bus stop today.
    The length of time it is taking to complete the work, and the disruption to bus services is being very badly managed. No sign of any “managers” to talk to.
    I wonder what the WBC councillors who gave this the go-ahead think.

    • I would also love to hear about that here 🙂
      I know that in the past Cllr Martin Johnson complained about the “seedy” stainless bins that replaced the old plastic bins on the new pavement:
      http://cjag.org/2012/01/17/cjtcp-meeting-1-decembre-2011-feedback/
      Since then they have been painted black on Lavender Hill.
      Regarding the pavement, the Council has got 2 years experience since they started the scheme on Lavender Hill. I haven’t noticed/heard any specific issue on Lavender Hill/Falcon road/St John’s Hill.
      Therefore would it be possible that this is exacerbating due to the specificity of St John’s Road (may people, shopping area)?
      Again, as you said, a feedback from the local councillors would be great.

  3. Hello
    I am a very proud Wandsworth resident and I am sad to see Clapham Junction dirtier than I think it ever has been with overflowing litter bins and heavily stained pavements. The new paving seems to have had the unintended consequence of making everything look really grubby.

    • I must say that I was astonished y the dirty paving in front of TK-Maxx this afternoon. The state of the new paving, that needs to be cleaned with water pressure now (but Wandsworth Council has no funding for that and it was not in the plan when TfL gave money to replace the pavements) was discussed a few weeks ago at the CJTCP board meeting: http://cjag.org/2013/08/16/cjtcp-meeting-15-august-2013-feedback/
      Although it appears that currently Wandsworth Council has no plan to clean it again, something must be done, and rather quickly.
      It would be a good idea to report the issue in numbers to the local councillors at least.

  4. I have reported this to the local councillors and the local MP but I would agree that we need a constant campaign by lots of people as our voices seem to go unheard. Is there a local shopkeepers’ association who might also take an interest? They are presumably paying high business rates. The area is becoming so undesirable in appearance that it is offputting to shoppers.

    • Yes, you can report it to St John’s Road business association. I think their representative is Waitrose (maybe someone can give you more information in the shop).
      In any case, you can also contact Lorinda Freint, the Town Centre manager, who is liaising with all of them for Clapham Junction (lfreint@wandsworth.gov.uk)

  5. The recent rain has certainly provided a slightly less dirty surface than before, but at least the area around the bins were being high-powered cleaned when the bins were bins emptied. A more worrying aspect of the time that the pavement and road improvements is taking. When a part of the South CIrcular was resurfaced recently, it took 2 nights. How is it that it is going to take 4 weeks to resurface St John’s Road (less that a fifth of the South CIrcular)?
    The proposed closure of St John’s Road for 4 week will have a devastating effect on the shops in St John’s Road. One sixth of the shops are independant and are really suffering already from the disruption.

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