Market Street, Oxford for Oxford City Council with Urban Movement and Civic Engineers

The project, in collaboration with traders, locals, visitors and businesses, focused on movement and public space in Oxford to prioritise access and servicing. Completed for £138 per sq m in just three weeks, it demonstrated how significant change can be achieved with minimal disruption and budgets. The design has inspired other local authorities across the UK, and led to a 24 per cent increase in footfall along the street, showcasing the success of the transformation.

*Public Space is supported by Vestre*

Who is on the project team? (designer, consultants, etc)

Design (landscape, transport, + urban design) and project lead - Urban Movement Client - Oxford City Council

Civil engineer - Civic Engineers

Project manager - Urban Movement

CDM coordinator - Civic Engineers

Main contractor - ODS, Meristem

Describe the context of this project, its neighbourhood and people.

Market Street is an historic street in the heart of the city centre, adjacent to the popular Covered Market and forming one of the primary access points to the Market, however the street was primarily used for parking and loading, with little room for pedestrians and no space for people to gather, stop and rest. The Covered Market is a huge draw for tourists and locals alike, and is undergoing a modernisation of its own currently, and this project set to upgrade the public realm around it and give it a fitting front door, purposely different from the traditional High Street access. Market Street was the opportunity to both create a welcoming, relaxing and green space for the Market; as well as pulling people through the city this way by making a compelling, accessible and attractive walking and cycling connection.

Tell us what you did and how it was designed and delivered. Please explain the governance of the project.

The design process for Market Street was collaborative, with the team working alongside traders, local people, visitors, and surrounding businesses to find a better balance between movement and place - ensuring access and servicing remained; whilst at the same time creating more permanent public space to draw people to the street and create a more attractive and inclusive place to spend time. The engagement with traders was core to the project, settling nerves and building trust through evening (out of hours for the Market) sessions in the Market that brought everyone together to socially discuss the work, explore ideas, and build a consensus. This also gave us the opportunity to discuss improvements to loading and servicing for the Market, with our work identifying the abuse of existing loading arrangements that was causing people problems, and how we can both fix this by giving more order to the street, as well as carving out space to give over to people and the city. This rebalancing was the crux of the design, and through a technical rearrangement of transport facilities were were able to set out adequate servicing space whilst also winning backspace to make the street accessible (for the first time) and create space for people to spend time and gather, a rare thing in a city with a great deal of private spaces.

How does this public space bring people together, encourage inclusivity, and make a positive environmental impact to the wider place? 

The new design creates social moments throughout the street, with seating and planting arranged at key moments, culminating in a community dining space at the Market entrance to enable people to enjoy what they have found in the Market in the open air - something which has not been possibly up to now. The design was anchored in making the street inclusive, having previously been made up of inadequate footways (1.1m or less in places) skirting loading and parking that often encroached onto these pedestrian spaces. The design creates a level surface, working with blind and partially sighted groups, as well as local accessibility groups, to develop solutions that work for all to open up the street as a pedestrian priority street. The design for the street also creates an environmentally democratic space, delivering greening in a public setting, in a city where green spaces are often private.