12 C O N T E X T 1 4 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Thursday, 18 June IHBC Annual School Thursday tours Streetscape design and traffic management Responding to this context requires a sensitive touch when it comes to street design, to reflect what is below as well as what is around. A prominent example of this is at St Benedict’s Gate, where not only is the footprint of the long-demolished gate marked out on the new street surface, but the cycle path has been carefully aligned so that it runs directly through the former gateway, once more giving expression to the formal boundary of the city. Distinctive bespoke street furniture plays an important role in enhancing the character of Norwich’s streets, through both standard elements and one-off spaces. Octagonal forms have been adopted as a city standard, from bollards, such as those in the Lanes district, to litter bins, giving a unified appearance while at the same time ensuring that street furniture can be robust and practical. More elaborate examples of street furniture can be seen at the Thomas Browne memorial, and on the Quayside by the River Wensum, where public sculpture has been cleverly designed to function as seating and bollards. The final theme worth highlighting is the care taken by the council to rationalise the traffic flows around the city centre and improve access for cyclists. Key examples of this are at Tombland, the former Saxon market, which is currently being resurfaced to include cycle lanes and generous pavements, and the quietly innovative zebra crossing for cyclists between Little Bethel Street and the Chapelfield park. Overall this was an engaging and enlightening tour that gave a real insight into the mechanics of making urban spaces work effectively in historic towns and cities. Tom Hunter Religious reverence There could not have been a more fitting title for the ‘Religious Reverence’ tour as Nicholas Groves, education officer and trustee of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, and Michael Wingate, surveyor of the fabric of NHCT, led us to eight churches within less than a quarter of a square mile of central Norwich. Norwich retains 32 of its 80 original medieval churches, although not all of these are still in use as places of worship. Half of the churches seen on our tour are now in the care of charities or, as seen in one case, in private hands. Although we did not enter the privately owned church, St Mary the Less, it is clear its change of use from a place of worship to a furniture warehouse and subsequent other uses has led to the deterioration of the fabric. The Grade I building was added to the buildings-at-risk register in 2008, which raises questions as to what could and should be done with it. Ben Webster, who leads Norwich City Council’s design, conservation and landscape team, is a veritable connoisseur of street furniture and urban landscaping (he even has a favourite bollard). So he was the perfect guide for a tour of some of the recent projects that have made the city centre of Norwich such a great environment for pedestrians and cyclists. Our tour took in a wide range of projects, from busy interchanges to small squares and benches. For each Webster gave us an in-depth, insightful and honest history of the project, revealing the tremendous attention to detail and care shown not just in the more recent projects he has worked on, but also on the older schemes dating back to the 1960s. The key themes which stood out to me were a sensitive response to the city’s medieval past; the distinctive use of street furniture; and a creative approach to traffic management in the confined streets of the medieval city. Medieval Norwich was second only to London in its importance. The products of this wealth can be seen to this day in the remains of its city walls, and the enormous number of churches which line its streets. BenWebster introduces delegates to a favourite bollard on the Binding Agent tour (Photo: Tom Hunter)
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