Hackney Central Master Plan P31-59

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PART II - THE MASTERPLAN FRAMEWORK This section establishes the over-arching urban design framework and design themes that underpin the proposed approach to developing the Hackney Central Masterplan area. This section also sets out the core elements of the Masterplan in terms of a public realm strategy, land use, indicative building heights, movement and access and community infrastructure.

The Masterplan Vision... “A thriving town centre offering a distinctive and highly memorable experience with high quality streets and places to reflect its status and civic role. The town centre will serve the needs of its users, providing a sustainable and enhanced range of town centre services including: retail, leisure, employment, education, community and civic facilities, as well as new homes and improved job opportunities. A high quality physical environment will be created, that is safe, clean, and easily accessible for pedestrians and other users. Hackney Central’s distinctive character, especially its historic environment, civic core and church gardens will be protected and enhanced. A range of improvements to streets, spaces and transport, including tackling congestion in the Town Centre and on the Narrow Way will enhance its attractiveness for those who live, work or visit, both in the daytime and the evenings”.

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A vision for Hackney Central

Figure 3.1 A vision for Hackney Central

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Figure 3.2 An urban design framework underpins the vision

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03 Masterplan Framework 3.1 The Masterplan Vision A key objective of national planning policy for town centres is to promote their viability and vitality by: “Planning for the growth and development of existing centres by promoting and enhancing them and by focusing development and a wide range of services there in a good environment which is accessible to all” (PPG15) The vision encapsulates what we aim to achieve through the preparation of the Masterplan. This document sets out design and detail development objectives that will enable the town centre to actively plan for growth and to manage change and conservation. The Masterplan aims to build upon Hackney Central’s strengths: its vibrant high street character; attractive historic church and gardens; unique shopping along the Narrow Way, civic/cultural foci, leisure and entertainment facilities at Hackney Empire and Ocean venue. It will improve the range of attractions, enhancing pedestrian accessibility so that it maintains its role as a successful district centre with aspirations to becoming a major town centre, whilst protecting and enhancing the historic environment to reinforce its character and distinctiveness.

It also aims to address its weaknesses: its traffic domination /bus congestion and under performing sites/areas (e.g. bus garage, Tesco, Hackney Central station); its key town centre access/ approaches and streetscape with environmental improvements; its weak definition of character areas and poor evening economy/restaurant offer. Better management of the town centre will be required to provide a broader range of visitor attractions, especially in the early evenings. 3.2 Masterplan Themes and Objectives The Masterplan has emerged around a set of objectives and overarching themes. These have continuously evolved throughout the Masterplan process, initially at the baseline stage and then tested through options development. The 5 themes and 17 supporting specific objectives are used to structure Part II – The Masterplan Framework. These are set out on in Table 3.1 opposite. Importantly, the policies contained in the London Plan (2008) have been considered in the preparation of these themes and objectives and a review of these overlaps can be found at Appendix A.

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Table 3.1 Masterplan Themes and Objectives Theme 1: Promoting high quality urban design for Hackney Central Objective 1: To reinforce a distinctive character and identity for the town centre Objective 2: To promote the legibility of the town centre, ensuring it is easy to get around Objective 3: To address the severance and minimise barriers to access Objective 4: To carefully locate tall buildings such that they support town-wide character, legibility and stimulate economic growth and investment Objective 5: To maximise the town centre benefits of key opportunity areas Theme 2: Enhancing the public realm Objective 6: To address the lack of a consistent high quality public realm across the town centre through a range of well designed public open spaces, street-based environmental upgrades and mutually supportive built projects Objective 7: To support an enhanced landscape design for key areas - St John’s gardens area - the Old Town Hall - civic square Objective 8: To work towards increased provision of children’s play facilities to address current lack of spaces for all age groups Theme 3: Ensuring a functional town centre for living, working and shopping Objective 9: To ensure land uses are well integrated and incorporate mixed use models generating active ground floors Objective 10: To identify and promote retail ‘quarters’ or themes within the town centre that will support a vibrant and diversified retail offer Objective 11: To achieve a range of high quality new dwelling types, sizes and tenures that will sustain and attract a varied population Objective 12: To achieve appropriate development densities that maximise the high public transport accessibility levels and town centre amenity context Theme 4: Establishing a coherent and attractive movement network Objective 13: To establish a clear hierarchy of movement and access across the town centre Objective 14: To improve the quality of the pedestrian and cycle environment addressing the dominance of vehicular and bus movements Objective 15: To ensure all transport infrastructure is well designed, integrated, accessible and safe Theme 5: Promoting forward thinking sustainable regeneration Objective 16: To maximise energy efficiency, promote different forms of sustainable energy production, minimise CO2 emissions and to recycle water. To achieve high quality design and CSH Level 3+ utilising sustainable construction techniques Objective 17: To ensure that regeneration is economically viable and enables town centre-wide improvements benefitting existing residents and businesses

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04 THEME 1 - Promoting High Quality Urban Design for Hackney Central 4.1 Reinforcing character and identity The Masterplan for Hackney Central town centre proposes significant new growth supported by civic amenities and services, retail and employment. These will sustain a balance of both economic and population growth to enable Hackney Central to meet the challenges of today and the future. Of equal importance is how residents and visitors perceive the current and emerging town centre. In this regard local distinctiveness plays an important role and is a key characteristic of successful places. Distinctiveness is achieved through identifying the predominant land use character of specific areas/neighbourhoods within a place (i.e. retail themes) and through strengthening overall identity. This assists in tailoring future intervention. 4.1.1 Defining areas of predominant character Hackney Central currently includes a range of more or less defined areas of dominant character. These have been described at the Baseline stage as indicated in Figure 4.1. In order to consolidate local differentiation across areas and steer future development, the diagram in Figure 4.2 proposes a Character Areas Framework for the town centre. This describes 12 character areas as follows:

Character Area 1: Mare Street East new urban quarter Character Area 2: Amhurst Road Character Area 3: Mare Street Character Area 4: St John-at-Hackney Church Gardens Character Area 5: Civic Heart Character Area 6: Mixed Employment Character Area 7: Traditional Streets Character Area 8: Kenmure Triangle Character Area 9: Horton Road Character Area 10: Clarence Mews Character Area 11: Clarence Road Character Area 12: Residential Estate Several of these character areas already function reasonably well and display consistent land use, development type and spatial patterns (e.g. Character Areas 4 and 8). Others are less coherent and would benefit from different levels of intervention / remodelling to reinforce a dominant character. These levels vary from considerable intervention (e.g. Character Areas 1 and 2) to moderate intervention (e.g. Character Areas 7 and 9 and so on). The varying degrees of intervention to support the respective Character Areas are described in the Appendix report and further elaborated below.

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Figure 4.1 Character areas

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Policy/Design Principles 4.2 Enhancing Town Centre Legibility: 1. Enhancing gateways and nodes Principal gateways and minor arrival points should be identified as notable ‘events’ in the townscape, through: • Streetscape and landscape treatments that will emphasis each location and will use a consistent set of high quality materials that will signify the town centre. • Notable architecture – including distinctive corner features on adjacent buildings. • New/improved pedestrian crossings and access. 2. Landmark buildings and structures Proposed new local landmarks should: • Be located above and/or adjacent to the Tesco redevelopment site along Morning Lane, emphasising the new ‘Mare Street East urban quarter’. • Be reflected in new the building(s) fronting the bus station site onto Mare Street. • Include accents on key corners to help frame important public spaces and may comprise, distinctive architectural treatment, additional height or emphasis with public art. 3. Key Views Proposals should retain and respect strategic, local views or view settings by: • Maintaining views with new buildings or structures ensuring that all new development works to ‘frame’ these views where possible. • Enhance local landmarks and their settings by respecting their height, mass and visibility as to not overshadow or overpower the existing landmarks and should further improve their settings. 4. Building Frontages • Promote active frontages, ensuring new primary building frontages are located along principal routes and spaces with secondary frontages on secondary streets. 4.2 Enhancing town centre legibility A network of memorable places and spaces, supported by a well-defined system of strategic and local views, landmarks and edges is proposed to make the area more ‘legible’. Legibility is essential to ensuring a place is well understood and therefore ‘usable’, i.e. allowing the resident and visitor to easily access the choices on offer. At present, the dual

railway alignments, under-used arches, impermeable blocks east of Mare Street (bus garage/Tesco site) and introverted Housing Estate layouts provide major barriers to pedestrian movements through the core of the area. High levels of traffic congestion are also a barrier to movement, particularly on the Narrow Way. The Masterplan seeks to overcome these barriers, to make it much more pleasant and convenient to get around. Figure 4.2 illustrates some of the key organising principles that underpin the Masterplan and aid legibility. These are reflected in individual opportunity area proposals and should inform more specific site based proposals. 4.2.1 Enhancing gateways and nodes The Masterplan defines a number of gateways (points of arrival) and nodes and these are described below. It is proposed to emphasise the 4 principal gateways and 8 minor points of arrival, both in terms of public realm improvements and the design of adjacent corner buildings. These comprise: Principle gateways •  North-western gateway: the junction of Pembury Road / Dalston Lane / Amhurst Road – with the significant building on the southern side of Institute Place and Pembury Tavern on Amhurst / Dalston lane forming the principal welcoming landmarks. These will be potentially accompanied by a new building on the vacant Pembury Estate corner site; • N  orthern ‘Narrow Way’ gateway: the junction of Clarence Road / Dalston Lane / Mare Street (Narrow Way) / Lower Clapton Road – strong Victorian terraced mixed use frontage to the south eastern corner, proposed redeveloped opportunity area to the north eastern corner along with potential incorporation of the underused Pembury Estate south-eastern edge; • S  outhern ‘civic’ gateway: the intersection and focus of the cluster of civic, cultural and learning facilities including the Town Hall, Ocean building, Library, Hackney Empire – this location forms a strong point of orientation for visitors and landmarks the town centre core area. To be enhanced through Town Hall square landscape and highways upgrading and through addressing the largely inactive frontage along the section of Mare Street fronting the square;

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Figure 4.2 Legibility

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• H  ackney Central Station gateway: the principal public transport access including the junction of Mare Street / Amhurst Road and further defined by the railway viaduct. This is a central gateway from which many parts of the town centre are accessible, though this point is very poorly defined. Facing the entry to St John-atHackney church gardens and the new Tesco and bus garage development area will make considerable improvements to the perception of this location. Major improvements to the public realm, including the arches access, junction design, pedestrian crossings, and potential redevelopment of the former station ticket building in conjunction with the gateway upgrade will reinforce this as a central point. These four existing gateway points define the principal entry and departure points of the town centre. The application of this strategy to architectural, landscape and infrastructure design will combine to create a series of major ‘events’ or points of distinction in the overall townscape experience. In addition, the following 8 minor arrival points and 6 nodes/crossings should be acknowledged: Minor arrival points: • The crossing of the western railway viaduct with Marcon Place; • the crossing of the western railway viaduct with Graham Road; • the crossing of the western railway viaduct with Wilton Way; • the crossing of the western railway viaduct with Reading Lane; • the crossing of the western railway viaduct with Richmond Road; • the entrance point at the eastern end of the redeveloped Tesco site and Morning Lane; • the entrance point at the eastern edge of St John-at-Hackney church gardens at the junction with Sutton Place; and, • the entrance point where Lower Clapton Road intersects with St John-at-Hackney churchyard and gardens. Minor nodes/crossing points: • the junction of Marcon Road / Amhurst Road; • the junction of Kenmure Road / Amhurst Road; • the new access point into Hackney Central station environs off Amhurst Road; • the junction of Graham Road / Mare Street; • the junction of Morning Lane / Mare Street; and, • the new crossing point off Morning Lane north into the Tesco site.

4.2.2 Landmark buildings and structures Within the Masterplan area, the following existing architecturally distinctive buildings and structures are identified as local landmarks: Local landmarks • Hackney Empire music hall; • Hackney Town Hall; • Learning and Technology Centre/Hackney Central Library; • Ocean Music Hall (formerly Central library/ Methodist Hall); • Hackney Central station former ticket office; • Old Town Hall; • St Augustine’s Tower; • St John-at-Hackney Church; • Pembury Tavern; and, • The 3 residential towers south of Morning Lane. Development proposed in the Masterplan would create new local landmarks in appropriate locations and emphasise key corners to assist legibility. 4.2.3 Key views Important views operate at both the strategic (study area-wide) and local level. At the local level ‘view cones/settings’ are also identified where important buildings (i.e. the view termination) are located in open space and not viewed simply along a corridor. The following views are important influences on the Masterplan: • Development must respect the following views to ensure the views are retained to protect the character and legibility of Hackney Central. Strategic views • SV1 from lower Mare Street to Hackney Empire; • SV2 from Hackney Central station platforms to St Augustine’s Tower and St John-at-Hackney Church; • SV3 from Valette Street to St Augustine’s Tower; • SV4 from Valette Street to St John-at-Hackney Church spire; • SV5 from the northern edge of Clapton Square to St John-at-Hackney Church; and, • SV6 from Morning Lane to both St Augustine’s Tower and St John-at-Hackney Church. Local street contained views • LV1 along Graham Road – strong linear view into Mare Street terminating on quality Mare Street frontage; • LV2 along Mare Street from south to railway viaduct; • LV3 from Paragon Road north to new Tesco development on Morning Lane;

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• LV3 along Amhurst Road into Mare Street; • LV4 along the ‘back lane’ off Sylvester Road to the Town Hall; • LV5,6 along the new north south links to St Augustine’s Tower and St John-at-Hackney Church respectively; • LV7- sequential view – revealed along Narrow Way; and, • LV8 - sequential view – revealed along Kenmure Road. Sequential Views • SQV1 along the Narrow Way. • SQV2 along Kenmure Road. View settings • VS1 surrounding St John-at-Hackney Church; • VS2 to the eastern area surrounding St Augustine’s Tower; and, • VS3 containing the Town Hall / Library and Hackney Empire cluster. 4.2.4 Building frontages Figure 4.2 indicates the proposed building frontage structure for Hackney Central. This has been described in terms of 3 basic types of frontage and that should be reflected in any future site proposal. Primary building frontage: • Delineates the principal public realm structure or ‘backbone’. • They are defined by high quality and/or architecturally distinctive buildings that create a direct and positive relationship to the adjacent street and open space network; Secondary building frontage: • Defines the public realm network of lower order routes and spaces, perhaps residential streets and the like. • A strong public/private building boundary is still desirable, though fully active edges are not required; Intermittent frontage: • Includes areas where a degree of natural surveillance is necessary but the type of location (e.g. arches re-use, minor pedestrian routes etc.) would not enable the same level of public realm investment as more important / connecting routes and spaces.

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Policy/Design Principles 4.3 Addressing Severance: 1. New developments and proposals for identified opportunity sites should seek to reduce existing severance issues and support the evolution of a clear connected urban structure. This structure should ensure that: All streets lead somewhere. • That places can connect with places; • That intermediary focal points are generated and supported by activities (e.g. railway stations, community facilities etc.). • These focal points are interlinked via high quality pedestrian routes; and are • Further ‘announced’ with landmark or key corner buildings 4.3 Addressing severance Various types of severance are experienced across the Masterplan area. These often result in physical barriers to pedestrian movement or visual/perceived barriers. The latter often reduce the perception of safety and thereby inhibit movement and the accessing of what the area has to offer. Both physical and visual/perceived barriers need to be overcome in Hackney Central. The principal types of severance in the town centre include: • High level railway infrastructure often impermeable at ground level for movement; • Traffic dominated highways infrastructure, particularly bus congestion on the Narrow Way; • Threatening and unsafe locations with lack of visual connection that inhibit pedestrian/cycle access. The Masterplan seeks to address each of these types of severance through putting forward a clear and mutually reinforcing urban structure (Figure 4.3)

Figure 4.3 Barriers to movement

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Policy/Design Principles 4.4 Locating Tall Buildings Overall, the height of development proposals should reflect the indicative building heights identified in the indicative Building Heights Framework Drawing (opposite). In addition, proposals should: 1.Consider and respect the context of the surrounding townscape in relation to building heights with regard to: • The height, scale and mass of nearby buildings. • Solar access to new and existing streets, spaces and buildings. • Listed buildings and Conservation Areas; and • Proximity to public transport. 2. Crossrail and CTRL Developers proposing schemes within the safeguarded area should engage with Crossrail at an early stage to ascertain the limitations this will impose on their development. 3. Site proposals for tall buildings appropriately so that they serve a meaningful townscape function and are informed by: • T  he Hackney Tall Buildings Strategy and the London Plan. • Reinforcing key strategic and local views. • Supporting the proposed urban structure and a coherent public realm strategy. • Sensitivity towards the Conservation Area planning designation along Mare Street. • Sensitivity towards St John-at-Hackney church and garden setting. • Sub-surface railway and sewer infrastructure and engineering constraints; and • Responding to development pressure and attracting new investment.

4.4 Locating tall buildings The Hackney Central Masterplan area includes a number of tall building opportunity areas as defined in the Hackney Tall Buildings Strategy (Feb 2005). These broadly include: • The area south of Amhurst Road that includes the Macron Estate; • Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations; • The area to the west of the Town Hall; • The bus garage, Tesco and site south of Morning Lane; and • Significant other areas including the Trelawney Estate extending south to Paragon Road and beyond. The London Plan (Policy 4B.9 - Location) promotes the development of tall buildings where they create attractive landmarks and provide coherency for locations. The plan also identifies the roll of tall buildings as catalysts for regeneration and maximising the potential of sites (Policy 34A.3). The Masterplan further refines the approach to tall building locations as shown in Figure 4.4. The rationale of creating a coherent public realm that is sensitive to the Conservation Areas and existing buildings context is key. To the south of the masterplan area the alignment of three 17 storey residential towers across the Trelawney Estate establish a skyline structure that may be continued with a tall building(s) on the southern edge of the Tesco site. Building heights should step down towards the Mare Street and the Conservation Area and similarly be moderated to 4 storeys along the southern edge of St John-at-Hackney church gardens. The area west of the town hall is also suitable for taller buildings though the opportunities for significant new development are limited. South of Reading Lane the proposed development should reflect the scale of the new Council services building. Any potential new (re)development within the Marcon Estate could accommodate heights of 6 storeys with potential scope for taller structures on a podium. The Chelsea-Hackney safeguarded route will have an impact on all development proposed along its route. The safeguarded land is likely to affect the height and nature of any proposed development within this area, such as the type of foundations proposed and the overall height of development being sought. The proposed location and depth of tunnels will influence these factors.

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Figure 4.4 Indicative building heights

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Figure 4.5 3D Image of the Masterplan area illustrating the proposed massing across the opportunity sites

Figure 4.6 Section through the Pembury Estate, through the Tesco site to St John-at-Hackney Church

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4.5 Maximising the benefits of key opportunity areas Hackney town centre is blessed with a wide range of opportunities for new or improved development. Such opportunities must be realised in the context of Hackney Central’s excellent public transport accessibility and high levels of amenity provision (retail / community / civic / leisure / recreation / employment). Forward-looking and aspirational development that seeks to ‘raise the bar’ and assist in re-positioning the town centre should be encouraged, while the more mediocre and ‘standard product’ should be required to rethink and achieve more ambitious goals.

the town centre. Such objectives emerged through the Masterplanning process and were tested through stakeholder and public consultation (see Chapter 3). Testing of strategies for the opportunity areas against Masterplan objectives took place during the options development stage to ensure that each area looked beyond its individual plot boundary and responded to town-wide issues. The principal ways in which the opportunity areas have been developed to ensure this wider responsibility and benefit include:

Opportunities in the town centre are detailed in Part III of the Masterplan, ‘Shaping Local Character,’ and include 12 character areas and specific sites. These range from significant clusters of sites that together have the potential to shift the character and image of the town centre (e.g. the area east of Mare Street and including the Arriva bus garage / Tesco store / Morning Lane sites), to the more independent but catalytic (e.g. Hackney Central Station environs), to infill and refurbishments of underperforming locations (e.g. Lower Clapton Road).

• E  nsuring all sites, where appropriate, are linked to their ‘parent’ key gateways/nodes and with architectural design appropriate to that location;

Strategies for each of the 12 areas have been identified that best support overarching urban design and sustainable regeneration objectives for

• E  nsuring sites are developed with appropriate densities, while massing patterns contribute to enhancing the public realm approach.

• E  nsuring all sites support a clear and coherent underlying urban structure;

• E  nsuring the development content for sites supports the respective land use strategies for different locations. Reinforcing active retail frontage is key; • E  nsuring the town-wide townscape approach is supported by appropriate site design, specifically in the location of taller buildings and landmark structures; and,

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05 THEME 2 - Enhancing the public realm Policy/Design Principles 5.1 The importance of the public realm 1. Development proposals should contribute to the enhancement of the public realm through: • Designs that positively address the public realm; and • Reflecting the key objectives of the public realm strategy. 5.1 The importance of the public realm The public realm encompasses our streets, public squares, parks and everything within, including benches, trees, paving, street lamps, signs and so on. These places form the backdrop to our everyday lives and are often taken for granted. However, the quality and nature of these places can have profound impact on our experience of the public realm. Experiencing a memorable place can illicit delight and pleasure. Equally, an unkempt or threatening public space can provide a negative experience. Importantly, the frontages of buildings adjacent to open spaces and streets very much form part of the public realm setting and private buildings and public space should be considered in tandem. 5.1.1 The need for improvement Hackney Central contains a number of public spaces, however, these are poorly connected and the quality of these streets and spaces is variable. The town centre also lacks a defining space at its very heart, at the bottom of the Narrow Way, resulting in a weak sense of place. The range of public space is also limited, with few play areas or places to sit and relax, and pedestrians are often marginalised by traffic dominated road space. The Masterplan proposals seek to address these weaknesses. 5.1.2 The overall approach The public realm strategy aims to address the treatment and quality of the public streets and spaces within the town centre and provide a ‘connected’ place that is easy to navigate and move around. By its nature, Hackney Central comprises a number of disparate locations that are poorly connected within the town. This poses the difficulty of how to interrelate these elements in a

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coherent way. Crucially, the Masterplan provides an opportunity to formulate a streetscape strategy, which can help to relate these disparate locations via a common thread through the public realm. This will ‘knit’ the town centre together, strengthen its role and identity and provide a clear, practical and attractive townscape. Objectives of the Hackney Central Public Realm Strategy: • To support and strengthen Hackney Central’s distinct character, making it a memorable place to visit and that is easy to move around; • To enhance the appearance, vitality and quality of streets and spaces; • To provide a network of attractive places for people to sit, relax and enjoy; • To provide a positive sense of arrival into the town centre at key locations; • To respond to the deficiency of public space and play areas; • To utilise suitable, durable, quality materials, with special attention to details and maintenance.

‘The Ropewalk’, Bridgewater, Somerset is a public art /public realm enhancement that leads to the town centre.

St John-at-Hackney church and gardens would benefit from better connections into the centre, consolidated landscape design and enhanced perceptions of safety through greater natural surveillance.

The Public Realm Strategy (PRS) is structured around improvements to the environment that are directed at key locations and significant streets. The PRS aims to provide both physical and aesthetic enhancements to the quality of these places. However, it also provides a unifying treatment of public streets and places that ties Hackney Central together as an identifiable town centre. Degrees of intervention in the public realm are determined by the existing quality of the place, its significance within the town centre and the role or function that it serves. One example is the area outside Hackney Central station. This is a poor quality environment, yet a significant location, serving an important role as the entrance to the station. Such spaces demand greater attention and quality in the public realm and would merit a significant degree of improvement. 5.1.3 Key elements of the strategy The public realm strategy recognises the hierarchy of streets and spaces within Hackney Central and proposes to reinforce their role by directing efforts and resources towards key town centre locations and routes. New developments are arranged to make a clear distinction between public and private realm. Building frontages face onto the public realm and

private space is largely placed at the back behind buildings. Fencing and high boundary walls should be minimised adjacent to streets and public places. The strategy incorporates the following key elements: 1. Principal public spaces: Provision of new public space and enhancement of the existing spaces. 2. Points of arrival: Improvements are recommended for each of the principal entrances into the centre. 3. Secondary locations: Improved crossings and treatment of the public realm at selected secondary locations. 4. A clear street hierarchy: A cohesive approach to streetscape design is proposed, with varying treatment according to the significance of the location. 5. Play and recreation spaces: A network of recreational and play areas is proposed throughout the area. 6. Management and maintenance: Addressing the management and maintenance of the proposed public realm to ensure the continued high quality of the environment.

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Figure 5.1 Areas for public realm enhancement

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5.2 Principal Public Spaces It is important that these spaces are linked in with the primary routes. It is essential that high levels of pedestrian accessibility are encouraged between the public spaces so they do not become isolated or underutilised. We have identified the following principal public spaces and a series of interlinking smaller spaces. Town Hall Square The existing Town Hall Square will continue to be maintained as a civic space, although a review of the existing area would look for suitable sensitive additions or the reworking of the existing spaces, including the surrounding roads such as Wilton Road and Reading Lane, as well as access arrangements to examine the potential for enlarging the existing public space. It is an ambition to reduce traffic and prioritise pedestrian access. At present the square provides a formal setting to the Town Hall but is less able to provide for a broader range of social uses. A re-examination of the function of the square should seek to enhance the usability of the space for a wider range of activities, whilst respecting its historic status. Any improvements to this space must respect its status and function to provide a formal setting for the Town Hall. Improving the quality and integrity of the space should include reinstating and traditional York stone paving. St John-at-Hackney Churchyard and Gardens It is envisaged that this established green space would be retained essentially with its existing tranquil character, providing a respectful setting to the church and historic location. It would continue to be the principal focus as the major recreational space for Hackney Central, providing a range of types of spaces, including the current grassed gardens for informal relaxation, to equipped play spaces for children (Doorstep Playable Spaces, DPS) and a place for events such as markets or outdoor theatre. Mature trees would be maintained. Intervention should consolidate this area through a new high quality landscape scheme focusing on high quality materials and installation and better links between spaces. Potential improvements to pedestrian movement, primarily east-west routes, would be evaluated in conjunction with proposals for the bus garage site, to improve the relationship between these two areas and enhance the degree of overlooking and sense of security. Some minor elements of the wider public realm strategy could be extended into this area, maintaining a connection with the wider area, such as common street furniture.

Figure 5.2 Town Hall Square

Figure 5.3 St John’s-at-Hackney Churchyard Gardens

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New Town Square The existing space immediately south of the Old Town Hall (Narrow Way) will become an exciting new town square situated at the bottom of Narrow Way. This will restate the significance of this central location as the nexus of the town and will be treated with a combination of hard and soft landscaping, public art and imaginative lighting in the square will ensure that it continues to be a notable space at night. The existing space will be enlarged and relandscaped. Existing vehicle accesses would be consolidated, with access to the bus depot taken through Bohemia Place, enabling the enlargement of the current space. A new pedestrian link would be provided through the railway arches creating improved connections to the space. This multifunctional area will be an attractively landscaped place for people to gather, sit, enjoy or simply pass through. Equally, it would be an adaptable place that allows for markets, public events, art or street entertainment. Like the Town Hall Square, provision could be made for informal recreation in the form of features for children rather than formal play equipment.

Figure 5.4 New Town Square opposite the station in the heart of Hackney Central

Linked spaces New smaller public spaces would be created along the route of the new pedestrian link through the Tesco site between Morning Lane and Mare Street. This route should provide for a variable width that would allow spaces for outdoor seating for cafes, displays by retailers or kiosks/stalls, as well places for people to linger and enjoy. This elongated space would enliven the route and make it an attractive environment and pleasant experience for pedestrians and shoppers. The route and spaces would be treated with a combination of hard and soft landscaping and be consistent with the wider public realm strategy for the town centre.

Figure 5.5 New connecting route incorporating a series of smaller spaces

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Policy/Design Principles 5. 3 Points of arrival Important points of arrival should be emphasised as follows: 1. Hackney Central Nexus: • Mark this area as a major location and focal point with a landmark or feature; • Providing exciting landscape treatment to emphasise this location as an entrance to the town centre; • Treatment of railway over-bridge to highlight it as a landmark in its own right; • New/improved pedestrian crossing arrangements; • Refurbish the ticket office frontage/space; • Extend the public realm south to Graham Road; 2. Dalston Lane • Mark this location as a clear gateway into the town centre; • Enhance the setting of the two existing significant buildings at this location. • Provide exciting, high quality landscape improvements to emphasise this location as a point of entry; • Recognise the importance of pedestrian movement; • Recognise this location as a major junction. 3. Town Hall Square • Minor restoration of existing features; • Extending the treatment of the public realm into the road to emphasise the importance of this gateway and address the dominance of traffic; • Enlarge the size of the square, closing surrounding roads to general traffic with priority to pedestrians. 5.3.1 Secondary locations 1. Should be enhanced to strengthen their gateway role through: • Marking these locations as minor landmarks • Design treatment of railway over-bridges to highlight these features as landmarks • Provision of minor landscape treatments to emphasise these locations as entrances to the town centre 5.3 Points of arrival Important gateways into Hackney Central should be distinguishable points of entry so as to create a clear sense of arrival, marking the transition from outside

to inside the town centre. Gateways already exist, but tend to be traffic dominated spaces that provide poor points of entry. The following points of entry are proposed for enhancement. Hackney Central Nexus This location is the key node within Hackney Central, forming a focal ‘nexus’ that links to all the surrounding parts of the town centre and through which important routes flow for both pedestrians and public transport. Not only is the nexus geographically central, but it is also the point of convergence for several significant roads and it performs a vital town centre role in terms of providing access to the station, the shops on Narrow Way and St John-at-Hackney Church and grounds. Dalston Lane Junction This complex junction marks the convergence of 5 roads at the top of Amhurst Road, resulting a broad expanse of road space and a major signal-controlled junction. It acts as a major gateway with Amhurst Road serving as an artery to the Hackney Central nexus. Town Hall Square This location is the first significant feature of the town centre when approaching Hackney Central from the south. The iconic Town Hall, Hackney Empire theatre and associated town square, combine with new library and Ocean venue to create a memorable and distinctive location, with an important civic function. This area is a landmark space in its own right and indicates an important point of entry into Hackney Central and is the third major gateway into the town. This area is currently a positive public space, although somewhat dominated by traffic. 5.3.1 Secondary locations A range of secondary nodes, include the junction of Narrow Way and Lower Clapton Road, and the railway over-bridges at Graham Road, Wilton Way, Reading Lane and Richmond Road. These locations form a series of secondary nodes with a gateway function, providing distinctive points of entry to the town centre, albeit of a more secondary nature. These locations should be considered for enhancement to provide a strengthened gateway role into Hackney Central.

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Figure 5.6 Gateways and Nodes

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Policy/Design Principles 5. 4 A clear street hierarchy The public realm should be the subject of high quality coordinated improvements to strengthen its character and identity and support the identified street hierarchy. Principal High Street Spine: Significant improvements to the public realm should be directed to the Principal High Street Spine so that: 1. Interventions include a common approach to: Paving and surface treatments • Lighting and street furniture • Signage • Soft landscaping and • Allowing for public art interventions 2. Interventions are directed towards: • Key locations where minor nodes/crossings are present; or • Where particular locations require a greater level of attention or emphasis. • Places where people gather or spend time, such as spaces or bus stops. 3. Key locations should become: • the focus of creative improvements to the public realm, for example through the use of high quality landscape design and materials, the provision of public art, and/or appropriate lighting and street furniture.

5.4 A clear street hierarchy Principal High Street Spine In addition to the gateways, high quality landscape treatment of the public realm should be directed towards the principle High Street route comprising Mare Street and the Narrow Way. These routes should be treated in a co-ordinated manner in a way that reinforces their status and significance as the principal spine running through the Masterplan area. A common approach to the treatment of the public realm throughout this area is important as a means of tying the High Street spine together as a unified place. It is important that proposals along this route are fully co-ordinated and distinctive to create a clear sense of place for the town centre, linking the gateways, via the primary routes to the central nexus. The Narrow Way forms the northern extension to Mare Street but serves a different transport function. It nevertheless is part of the High Street spine route and performs an important retail role. It should receive the same focus of investment. Specific treatment to Narrow Way will differ with the intention of creating an intimate, pedestrian focused, quality retail streetscene. This is further explored in Character Area 3 (Part III). Interventions should be directed towards key locations to emphasise their role and importance along the principal High Street Spine.

4. Enhancements to nodes and crossing points should: • Also focus on improving the pedestrian environment in terms of quality, safety and legibility/way-finding.

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Figure 5.7 Hierarchy of routes

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Policy/Design Principles 5.4 A clear street hierarchy (continued) Key connecting streets: Significant improvements to the public realm should on Key Connecting Streets should: 5. Include a common approach to the treatment of the public realm interventions with regard to: • Paving and surface treatments • Lighting and street furniture • Signage • Soft landscaping and • Allowing for public art interventions These should be consistent with the treatment of the public realm along the principle High Street Spine. 6. Direct significant interventions towards: • Key locations where nodes/crossings are present. • Locations requiring a greater level of attention or emphasis to support the function and character of these streets; and • Enhance the legibility of Hackney Central. 7. Key locations should: • Become the focus of creative improvements to the public realm, for example through the use of high quality landscape design and materials, the provision of public art, and/or appropriate lighting and street furniture. 8. Enhancements to nodes and crossing points should: • Also focus on improving the pedestrian environment in terms of quality, safety and legibility/way-finding. Local Residential Streets: 9. These locations should include more minor interventions in the streetscape, but should seek to enhance the quality of the environment and the legibility of Hackney Central by examining the potential for improvements to the public realm for: • The planting of small/medium trees to provide a consistency to the streetscape and linear direction • Improvements to existing surfaces where necessary and/or appropriate • Marking parking bays with quality materials such as granite setts; and • The definition of street entrances with quality materials and landscape design/treatment

Key Connecting Streets These principally comprise Amhurst Road, Morning Lane and Graham Road and act as important connecting roads to Mare Street, having a significant transport function. Despite their status as secondary streets they do share some parallels with the High Street spine, in terms of the broad scale of road space, catering for significant amounts of traffic and containing elements of retail, albeit of a more peripheral nature.  These streets should be approached in a similar way to the High Street spine, with a co-ordinated treatment of the public realm, although the degree of intervention will be less significant than that of the principal High Street Spine route, reflecting their secondary role. This will allow resources to be directed to the most important locations. Significant interventions on secondary routes will focus on minor nodes/crossings or where particular locations require a greater level of attention, where people gather and spend time, such as public spaces or bus stops. Local Residential Streets A number of tertiary residential streets are also identified for potential improvement of their public realm, predominantly where these act as links between the other significant streets, such as Kenmure Road between the Narrow Way and Amhurst Road. These locations will generally attract more minor interventions in the streetscape. New Pedestrian Priority Route (through Tesco’s site) A new pedestrian route is proposed through the Masterplan area linking Paragon Road to the Narrow Way. This would provide a high quality environment for pedestrian movement and an alternative to the noise and bustle of Mare Street. It is also intended for this to incorporate new outside spaces in places along this route in order to create an attractive and legible route through the area.

New pedestrian route (through Tesco site)

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Policy/Design Principles 5.4 A clear street hierarchy (continued) 10. Design and treatment of this route should provide: • A coordinated treatment of the public realm and landscape along this route, consistent with the approach to the public realm elsewhere within Hackney Central • A rich landscape treatment of important locations along the route such as crossings/ minor nodes, the inclusion of public art and/or high quality landscape treatment to emphasise their significance, role and aid legibility of the townscape • A high quality lighting with particular attention at minor nodes and the railway arches • The provision of ‘spill out’ spaces for shops and cafes, to generate lively spaces with high levels of activity. 5.5 Play and Recreation Spaces The Hackney Play Strategy 2007-12 has been prepared by the Learning Trust and seeks to build on previous successes as well as address gaps and shortfalls in the promotion and provision of quality play opportunities for all children. It also aims to ensure that play is an integral part of strategies and developments which impact on children’s ability and opportunity to play in Hackney. This Masterplan has therefore sought to have regard to the objectives of the strategy. The Hackney Open Space and Sports Assessment finds that “small parts” of the Hackney Central ward are deficient in children’s play provision though these fall outside of the SPD boundary. Further LBH Masterplanning studies have found that 65% of the children’s play areas do not meet all of the criteria set by the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA). It was further found that 11.75Ha will be required to meet the need for sports pitch provision to 2016. The SPG ‘Providing for Children and Young People’s Play and Informal Recreation’ prepared by the GLA and adopted in 2008 establishes standards for play facilities in London. In addition to formal play areas, the SPG recognises that other types of space can be multifunctional. For example, green spaces can provide opportunities for informal recreation while also being places that others can enjoy.

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This Masterplan proposes a new typology of play spaces based upon the multifunctional concept of ‘playable space’ rather than play spaces and defines a hierarchy of play provision as follows: Doorstep playable space: a place where children under 5 can play; Local playable space: a place where children aged up to 11 can play; Neighbourhood playable space: a more extensive place where children aged up to 11 can play, and where there are some facilities for young people over 11; Youth space: a place where young people aged 12 and above can meet and take part in informal sport-based activities (including ‘extreme sports’ such as skateboarding) and other informal recreation. The Masterplan focuses on the need to adapt existing spaces to provide suitable playable space in order to cater for the future child population that would live in the area following the introduction of additional residential accommodation. 5.5.1 Defining the number and type of facilities to be provided GLA guidance advises that a benchmark standard of 10sqm per child should be applied to establish the quantitative requirement for play space provision arising from new developments. It has been estimated that the additional child population resulting from the level of development identified by the Masterplan would be approximately 624 children resulting in a requirement of 6240 sqm of additional recreational space. The GLA typology of play spaces builds on the multifunctional concept of ‘playable space’ and defines a hierarchy of play provision, with facilities specified according to intended target age. Table 5.1 applies the GLA hierarchy of playable spaces, to provide a schedule of planned play provision. This focuses on possible additional children to be introduced to the area following the construction of proposed new developments. This figure therefore needs to be added to the existing child population and therefore should be regarded as a minimum requirement.

Location

Type

Target age

Characteristics

Walkable Size catchment (sqm)

St John-atHackney Church gardens

Local playable space

5 – 11 year olds

300sqm min activity area

400m

2,700sqm

Doorstep playable space (formal)

Under 5s

24,000sqm

100sqm activity 100m zone with a variety of equipment Neighbourhood playable space

11yrs and over

500sqm min. A varied natural space with secluded and open areas, landscaping and equipment so that children aged from birth to 11 can play

800m

Youth space

12+ year olds

Informal sport or physical recreational activities.

800m

Town Hall Square

Doorstep playable space (informal)

Under 5s (potential informal 5 – 11 year old provision)

Features for children rather than formal play equipment

100m

1450sqm

Clapton Square

Doorstep playable space (formal)

Under 5s

100sqm activity zone with a variety of equipment

100m

6,300sqm

Local playable space

5 – 11 year olds

300sqm min activity area

400m

Space to eastern edge of bus garage

Doorstep playable space (informal)

Under 5s

Features for children rather than formal play equipment

100m

820sqm

Games area within Trelawney Estate

Youth space

12+ year olds

Informal sport or physical recreational activities.

800m

880sqm

Grassed area south of Morning Lane

Youth space

12+ year olds

Informal sport or physical recreational activities.

800m

1600sqm

Doorstep playable space (formal)

Under 5s

100sqm activity zone with a variety of equipment

100m

200sqm

Total on-site playable space Table 5.1 Hackney Central Town Centre Quantum and type of proposed playable space

37,950

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Policy/Design Principles 5.5.2 Playable Spaces Playable spaces should to be provided as follows: 1. A wide range of play space types at St John-atHackney by including: • Doorstep Playable Space (DPS) specifically intended for the under 5’s • ‘Local Playable Space’ (LPS) for children aged up to 11, ‘Neighbourhood Playable Space’ • A ‘Youth Space’. 2. Provide a Doorstep Playable Space within the Town Hall Car Park: • Redevelopment under used Town Hall Car Park to potentially accommodate a new space incorporating a new DPS space. 3. A formal Doorstep space and Local Playable space at Clapton Square: • Enhance facilities for these types of playable space as is located close to residential properties with good natural surveillance.

5.5.2 Establishing the accessibility, range and location of play facilities Figure 5.8 illustrates how the various proposed playable spaces are distributed throughout the area. The London Plan recommends that a 400m access standard is used in relation to small local parks. This represents a 5-minute walking distance applied as a fixed radius from the edge of the open space. However, it also recognises that residents will not make straight line trips from home to park and accounts for severance factors (e.g. railway lines, busy roads), the location of park entrances and the morphology and grain of the surrounding pedestrian route network. It suggests that a 280m radius is also plotted, representing a constrained catchment. Studies of children’s play have emphasised the appeal and use of unofficial play areas in addition to planned children’s play areas. Therefore provision should also be made for informal play within new developments, where opportunities arise.

4. Provide an informal Doorstep space to the eastern end of the current bus garage: • Incorporate into landscape proposals as part of any redevelopment of the bus garage 5. Provide a new Youth space and Doorstep space on the grassed area on Morning Lane: • Provide a space for more active recreational pursuits, such as a skateboard park. • Encourage ‘natural surveillance’ from adjacent buildings. • Facilitate protection from traffic. • Accommodate a Doorstep space within its own landscape setting. 6. Opportunities for informal play are to be provided in proposals for new development, where opportunities arise, including: • Through innovative landscape design treatment of open areas and spaces • Potentially incorporate into roof gardens and space in proposals for the Tesco and Bus garage opportunity sites

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Informal play sculpture

Figure 5.8 Play Strategy

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