From gridlocked and cluttered to smart and classy? A spate of office developments and chi-chi boutique schemes could be about to transform Marble Arch.
Today the Edgware Road scene is dominated by perma-traffic, currency exchanges and shisha bars. But landlords and developers are promising to take the western end of Oxford Street on a social journey. What was once a no man’s land of traffic lights and bus lanes could soon be the fulcrum of a leisure and retail axis.
Or could it? Some of those involved look at the long (and slow) history of smartening up the eastern end of Oxford Street at St Giles Circus and wonder whether transforming Marble Arch might need more vigorous public-sector leadership.
The difficulty, in a word, is traffic. Marble Arch gyratory is one of the most monstrously complex pieces of London’s traffic jigsaw. Resolving it is expected to take five to 10 years – and for some developers, that is probably several years too long.
Almacantar, veteran of the long struggle to redevelop the eastern end of Oxford Street, is hard at work planning the redevelopment of 21-storey Marble Arch Tower (pictured above), the 1960s block it acquired in 2011. Today the site has 173,000 sq ft of mixed-use property on the corner of the western end of Oxford Street and the northern end of Park Lane.
The future – a Rafael Vinoly-designed proposal for an 18 storey, 49-flat tower at the corner of Oxford Street and Edgware Road, along with 97,000 sq ft of offices, 36,000 sq ft of retail space and a new 39,000 sq ft Odeon cinema – will be “transformational”, it insists.
Almacantar is now finalising the section 106 agreement after winning planning permission in June. Work on site will begin late next summer.
Development director Kathrin Hersel is clear about her main concern. Just hours before she spoke to Estates Gazette, yet another traffic accident at Marble Arch had sent pedestrians scattering.
“The area needs lifting,” she says. “You come out of Marble Arch tube station and everything just stops. Cluttered street furniture, souvenir shops, exchange bureaux, traffic – it’s not a nice environment. We had to address how to get to the park safely. There’s a lot of accidents – there was one today – and it needs to be a lot more pedestrian-friendly.
“We are talking to Transport for London about sorting out the gyratory system. This is very important and, hopefully, they will address it. We are talking about the next five to 10 years.”
In the meantime, Almacantar hopes Edgware Road can complement the retail offer of Oxford Street.
“Linking up the frontages, filling the missing links between the two, we could see Oxford Street as traditional retail, Edgware Road as more restaurants, cafés, eating, the kind of thing there’s not room for on Oxford Street,” says Hersel. “That’s probably the way the area will go. And I don’t think Edgware Road’s character will vanish. There will still be lots of smaller units that the independent retailers and restaurant operators can contribute to.”
Hersel is not convinced that a formal planning brief for the area is needed – but she does hint that a bit of Westminster city council muscle might be helpful.
“I’m not aware of a specific planning brief for Marble Arch – development is happening site by site – and a brief might make life more difficult,” she says. “But it is useful to have a statement of the vision for the area, and it would be useful to have that in dealing with the traffic problems and placing Edgware Road as a leisure destination. It would be great if Transport for London could make more progress on the traffic issues.”
Simon Loomes, strategic projects director at the Portman Estate, which owns 110 acres to the north of Oxford Street and to the east of Edgware Road, sees it much the same way.
“Marble Arch should be one of London’s great spaces,” he says. “It simply needs a little focus and vision. We are confident that its time is coming. Oxford Street’s rise, the cycling campaign and Westminster’s public-realm focus are all aligning now. Fast-forward to Crossrail, a renewed public realm for west Oxford Street, a reviving Edgware Road and it will become irresistible. It requires leadership focused on delivery and pragmatism, but it starts from a low base and the potential is on an international scale.
“We recognise that the traffic needs to flow, but so do the pedestrians and cyclists. It is the transition zone between a great park and the centre of London’s shopping, and should be a place to enjoy.”
The Portman Estate is a member of the Edgware Road Partnership, which is working with TfL and Westminster city council to improve the Edgware Road environment.
Westminster council is keen to make soothing noises – but it can’t promise much. It is putting its faith in the West End Partnership and more talks with TfL.
A spokesman told EG: “We do have a strategy to improve the public realm right across Westminster. If you look at Victoria, Paddington and the east end of Oxford Street, you can see a blueprint for what we can achieve elsewhere. Edgware Road and Queensway are all high on the list for improvements, both in terms of traffic and public realm. There is now lots of public art at Marble Arch as part of the council’s City of Sculpture initiative, which has been running for four years.”
The consensus is that, with or without an accelerated solution to the traffic problem, Marble Arch is on the way up.
Keith Hearn is senior director at CBRE and a planning adviser to British Land, whose interests in the area include the 61,200 sq ft office development at Marble Arch House developed after an agreement with the Portman Estate. He says: “The eastern end of Oxford Street has had a lot of attention, but the west has been neglected until relatively recently. We are now seeing areas like Seymour Place become quite funky, and the same is true of New and Old Quebec Street. This process is going to carry on and the profile of the area will move up as more people discover it.
“There is no lack of personality in Seymour Place and I don’t think we need to worry about losing the character of Edgware Road.”
Go West?
Economic consultancy Nera had not planned to make the huge social leap from Bond Street to Edgware Road.
But today, it is installed on the third floor of British Land’s Marble Arch House (pictured left), paying about £72.50 per sq ft for an 11,000 sq ft suite.
“Nera were in a nice period building just by Bond Street tube station,” says Simon Tann, partner at niche West End agency Levy Real Estate, which advised on the relocation. “They looked at Midtown, but it wasn’t for them, and they realised their budget meant there would be limited options in the West End.
“Edgware Road was initially a concern for them, but it was one they overcame as they looked at the area more closely, and saw things like Portman Estate’s work at Seymour Place, which is good and getting better. They really liked it.”
Tann adds: “Edgware Road once had an iffy reputation – now, certainly, the southern end feels very different.”
CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield advised British Land.
