Shrewsbury Town Centre

Ongoing advice for design and implementation of early phases of Shrewsbury’s public realm up-grading, as part of a broader traffic management strategy for the historic town centre aimed at reinforcing pedestrian priority.

 

Proposals were developed for High Street, Castle Gate, Wyle Cop, and Pride Hill, including roadway narrowing; rationalised on-street parking and loading; re-surfacing in high quality traditional materials; improved pedestrian crossing facilities; provision for public transport and cycles; new street furniture, signage and tree planting.

 

The project represented one of the first comprehensive public realm schemes for an historic town centre, and is cited as good practice by English Heritage. It pioneered the introduction of ‘courtesy crossings’, reduced size of loading restriction signs, low or flush delineation kerbs, consistent use of heritage materials, and street de-cluttering. The scheme resulted in a 34% reduction in traffic volume and 22% reduction in traffic speed.