Camden Parklets & Planters - Fitzrovia Green Gateway

This summer we managed to roll out over 15 Parklets / 150 Linear Metres of Parklets across some of Camden’s most high profile high streets as part of their Streateries program.

A Streatery is a car free outdoor dining space for restaurants, cafes and other businesses to place tables and chairs. Providing more temporary space for these businesses helps customers to physically distance themselves whilst eating and drinking out.

Research from the US shows having a Parklet outside a hospitality business can;

  • Increase the revenue by between 20-30% in the first year

  • Increase footfalls by 44%

  • 87% were in favour of Parklets

  • Increase dwell time by this location by 160%

“We are focused on supporting our hospitality businesses to resume trading so they can survive and thrive. The absolute last thing residents will want to see is empty high streets of closed-up cafes and restaurants. Creating streateries is one way we are supporting businesses to operate differently to ensure they are COVID secure.” - Councillor Adam Harrison, Cabinet member for a Sustainable Camden

 Warren Street Parklets & Planters

Fitzrovia Partnership and Meristem Design teamed up around 5 years ago to deliver a series of Parklets and Planters across the business improvement district's territory which is in the heart of Fitzrovia. This included the highly successful Streetearies program in conjunction with Camden Council to provide outdoor seating for the hospitality sector along large sections of Charlotte Street during the Covid outbreak.

More recently we were asked to design a series of planters to enhance the small section of Warren Street which is free from passing vehicles.  The layout of the planters was designed to create a green gateway into the area with a pair of large olive trees and a selection of shrubs in colourful planters.  The planters along this section were also designed to fit around the existing seating and table to create green seating zones. We incorporated some of the local coffee shops branding colours into the selection of paint we used on the planters.

The existing hospitality businesses were delighted with the new greenery and they received lots of positive feedback from their customers. 

We also installed a Parklet on the road outside the Smugglers Tavern pub to provide outdoor space for their customers, the management told us it is very popular with their customers and the extra capacity is also great for their business.

Research has shown that people expect much more from public places than ever before.  Rather than purely functional places, the public realm needs to be a place for people to meet, relax, enjoy public art, for informal play and for alfresco dining.  Providing a space for trees and planting is so beneficial to the public and for mitigating the impacts of climate change. We hope our green intervention goes a little way in providing this….