Camden Town Unlimited (CTU) and Euston Town are launching a major new urban design strategy. This will link the borough’s key landmarks, cultural experiences, and green spaces, to create better connected, more accessible – and attractive – walking and cycling routes between Camden, Euston and Kings Cross. The upcoming Camden Highline, the elevated linear park that will connect Camden with King’s Cross, will form a major landmark for the project and is set to be one of its key attractions.

On the back of COP26, the Camden Green Loop puts much lauded green ambitions, including promoting active travel, the creation of 15-minute cities and boosting biodiversity in cities into practice. Taking a new approach to neighbourhood design based on inclusivity, sustainability, and fair economy, the initiative is set to make Camden a leading example in public realm, urban design, and the enhancement of London’s future neighbourhoods.

The placemaking strategy is also designed to facilitate meaningful local engagement in the future of Camden’s neighbourhoods. Partner organisations CTU and Euston Town are calling on local businesses to visit www.camdentownunlimited.com to join the conversation and place themselves on the Camden Green Loop map, celebrating their place within these exciting neighbourhoods and exploring new ways to collectively uplift Camden’s public realm.

Key landmarks on the Camden Green Loop include green spaces such as Regents Park, Regent’s Canal and Camley Street Nature Reserve; cultural institutions including the British Library and Wellcome Collection; and business clusters including Camden High Street, Drummond Street, while visitor destinations such as London Zoo, Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard all fall close-by.

The Camden Green Loop will bring these together into a four-mile waking route, connected with a growing network of public realm enhancements to improve walking and cycling journeys. Proposed interventions will range from bike hangers, pocket parks and street and play furniture, to the wholesale redesign of networks of alleyways to tackle antisocial behaviour.

The Camden Green Loop route will be mapped by wayfinding which guides users to build their own personalised route, taking in their preferred destinations for anything from a family day out, to a shopping expedition, to a walk or a cycle through Camden’s impressive green spaces. A competition launching next year will seek out a design partner to develop a Camden Green Loop brand.

Camden Town Unlimited CEO Simon Pitkeathley commented: “The Camden Green Loop is a way to make sense of our neighbourhoods – celebrate their fabulous assets, and identify where we should focus to increase permeability and better connect communities. It ties together the public realm projects of Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town, including of course the Camden Highline – but since Covid, it also represents a new approach to neighbourhood design. We are asking businesses, organisations and institutions to celebrate the Green Loop as a visitor destination, put themselves on the map, and get involved in uplifting our civic spaces.”

Euston Green Link, a green walking route linking Euston Station and Regent’s Park marks the first phase of the Camden Green Loop initiative. The route includes green infrastructure interventions such as a green wall and pocket park, plus branded hoardings, signage, and bespoke street furniture, which adorned Drummond Street’s pavements over the summer months.

The Camden Green Loop also includes a Green Loop Climate Plan, a strategy to build shared knowledge on sustainability, whereby organisations can access both a baseline carbon footprint assessment and follow-up support to improve their performance, both individually and collectively. The plan invites businesses to join a group working towards sustainability, lessening the burden of climate action and making real progress more achievable.

Camden Green Loop will also give a platform to a number of CTU projects which bring new community value to temporarily vacant spaces, and hopes to be a catalyst for further initiatives to bring Camden’s disused spaces and buildings back to life. It also aims to increase overall access to high quality green space across the borough and ensure that more local communities and businesses collectively benefit from the opportunities that stem from local major developments.