Kennington Oval Reimagined

Kennington Oval Reimagined: Baseline Data Collection & Pre-trial Engagement

Background & Lambeth Transport Objectives

The way we design our streets influences how people use them. In Lambeth, we want to make it easier to walk, wheel and cycle. This is guided by our Climate Action Plan and by the Mayor of London’s Healthy Streets Approach, putting human health and experience at the heart of planning the city. When people choose to travel actively, this improves public health and is more environmentally friendly.

To reach Net Zero by 2030, we have the following transport objectives as part of our Climate Action Plan:

• Decrease motor traffic by 27% in the borough
• At least 85% of journeys in Lambeth are made by walking, cycling or public transport
• Use 25% of kerbside space for sustainable uses, as per our Kerbside Strategy

Lambeth Council's Kerbside Strategy outlines how we will use kerbside space (the space at the side of the road typically used for car parking) on our streets to:

• Enable accessible and active travel, e.g. with cycle parking, dropped kerbs
• Creates places for people, e.g. with parklets, seating
• Increase Climate Resilience, e.g. with planting, SUDS, greening
• Reduce traffic and transport emissions, e.g. with electric vehicle charging bays

Scheme Objectives

The Kennington Oval area was selected for this project based on key metrics, including having health, deprivation and air quality which are significantly worse than the borough average. The scheme objectives are as follows:

• Prioritise safety outside schools at school pick up and drop off times
• Reallocate kerbside space to sustainable uses
• Reduce traffic volumes to improve safety, encourage active travel, and prioritise people over cars
• Preserve motor vehicle access so residents and local businesses can use motor vehicles when necessary
• Enable people to travel safely through the area by walking, cycling or wheeling

Baseline Traffic Data Collection

Community feedback and data collected showed that some streets experience high volumes of traffic travelling through the neighbourhood. Census data shows that 68% of households in the Kennington Oval Reimagined area don’t have access to a car.

Traffic count data from December 2023 indicates that some people are driving through the Kennington Oval Reimagined area as a cut-through to avoid the main road network. Kennington Oval has up to 1,600 motorised vehicles a day east of Vauxhall Street. The remaining streets in the area all attract about 1,000 vehicle trips a day apart from Magee Street which attracts just 800. Cyclists frequently use Kennington Oval to connect between Vauxhall St and Cycleway C5 on Harleyford Road with about 500 such journeys daily. Clayton Street and Bowling Green Street have about 150 daily cycle trips each.

Data collection and assessment of the trial will be carried out in stages (using both qualitative and quantitative methods), with a monitoring report being published during or after the project trial. The monitoring approach will look at: 

• Impact of the trial on traffic 

• Impact of the trial on the proportion of sustainable vs. non-sustainable kerbside uses 

• Impact of trial on how people travel through and spend time in the project area. 

Initial engagement

Initial engagement took place between October 2023 and January 2024, to understand how people travel through the area, as well as what improvements they would like to see. The Council worked with community engagement specialists Streets Reimagined to carry out local engagement, including:

• 2 on-street engagement events
• 2 workshops at schools with parents and children
• 2 focus group walking tours
• An online survey
• A session with Lambeth's Accessibility Working Group to discuss the streets in the area

288 people completed the online survey. Over 75 people attended an in person event.

You can read both the summary and full community engagement reports below.