Lunchtime Streets comes to St Mary Axe

Lunchtime Streets comes to St Mary’s Axe!

This August and September Lunchtime Streets is bringing our streets to life, by giving a revamp to the space around us. By keeping motor vehicles off the street at peak times of the day, the City of London Corporation working through our Active City Network aims to create a safer and cleaner environment for everyone to enjoy.

From Tuesday 13 to Thursday 15 August we transformed one of London’s busiest streets. From food stalls to ice cream vans, table football to Jenga, St Mary’s Axe changed from being a busy thoroughfare for vans and traffic, into a fun and enjoyable place for lunch hour.

For three days the street was filled with music, games and yes, a little bit of rain. Without the traffic there was space for lots of additional seating, deck chairs, tables, lots of plants and trees. People could sit, chat, and enjoy their lunch in the traffic free area, listening to the sounds of our string quartet, instead of the noisy congestion that normally dominates the area at lunchtime.

If you find yourself asking why such a scheme is necessary, the answer is simple; along St Mary’s Axe alone, there are already over 10,000 people who work in the surrounding offices, and with the introduction of the new Elizabeth Line, and the new buildings under construction, it is predicted that this will more than double. We need to provide a quality public realm to cater for a growing workforce, to provide a safe, clean comfortable environment. Working with employers to find ways to remove non-essential traffic from the busiest times of day, allows the City to provide events, seating and safety, for which Lunchtime streets is an example.

We asked the people who currently work on the street if they would support traffic free lunchtimes, and over 90% supported this idea.

Overall it was a brilliantly well received event, that we hope has given people an insight into what a traffic free street could be like.

If you missed Lunchtime Streets St Mary Axe, join us this September 3 – 5 on Chancery Lane.