If you tend not to venture west very often, your first thought when we say the words ‘Warwick Avenue’ might be Duffy’s 2008 break-up banger. God, what a throwback.
If your postcode starts with W, however, you’ll likely be familiar with, well, the actual road, and its tube station. Located between Maida Vale and Paddington, Warwick Avenue acts as the gateway to Little Venice. And it’s about to get a glow up, thanks to plans from Westminster City Council.
A scheme to revamp the area surrounding the station, called the Warwick Avenue public realm project, was first proposed four years ago. It was publicly announced in February 2024 and now the plans have been approved by the council.
So what can we expect from the new scheme? Well, its whole purpose is to make the area around Warwick Avenue station safer and more welcoming. To do that, it will create cleaner and safer pedestrian and cycle routes at Warwick Avenue and Warrington Crescent and add additional greenery to the neighbourhood, while still ‘preserving the existing character of the street’, the council said.
The project will also upgrade recycling facilities at the station and provide direct access to the Underground and facing St Saviour’s Church.
The plan’s hefty price tag has ruffled some feathers with local councillors. It was originally supposed to cost just £1 million, but that has since been bumped up significantly. Plus, in a meeting on Monday (April 20), concerns were raised over certain elements of the scheme, including how the choice to narrow a junction would impact the amount of antisocial behaviour.
Council officers said they would consider these issues as they move ahead with the project, which has officially got the green light.
Westminster authorities have approved the £2.9m that’s needed to progress and complete the scheme, though no timeline has been set for when the work will be finished.
Did you see that one of London’s most historic train stations is being rebuilt with bold new features?
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