For centuries, Cheapside has been one of London’s great streets. Located at the heart of the City of London,  between St. Paul’s Cathedral to the West and Bank Junction to the East, two major intersectional nodes within the City. Scott Whitby Studio was initially appointed in 2018 by the City of London Corporation to investigate pedestrian movement through public realm adjacent to St. Paul’s Underground Station. Our studies highlighted the importance of the site as a gateway to the north side of the Cultural Mile and the wider City. Our proposal constituted a new public space, encouraging through-movement and integrated seating with year-round planting.

The success of this initial intervention led to the commissioning of Phase 2 – the Sunken Garden. Located on the prominent corner of New Change and Cheapside, an existing public space was identified as uninviting and generally unsuccessful. We worked with the CoL to create a new space that would act as a benchmark for future public spaces. The project keeps its Carbon footprint as low as possible by sourcing local and reclaimed materials – the Granite for the benches is sourced from the Old Thames wall, dressed as found to minimise the cuts, whilst the timber is felled Plane tree from Waltham Forest. The project is currently on site and will be completed in summer 2024.

Further to this, we have been developing proposals for two more public spaces along Cheapside: St. Peter Westcheap and Bow Churchyard. Both of these sites are tired, unwelcoming and severely under-utilised. Our ambition is to transform them into vibrant, green public spaces, acting as urban oases. Most recently, the studio has been appointed to conduct an analysis of the area that will result in proposals to develop a holistic, coherent strategy and identity for the Cheapside Public Realm, knitting together the various sites and public spaces already completed and proposed. Through our ongoing cooperative relationship with the CoL, the project aspires to create world-class public realm at the beating heart of the square mile.