The future of Regent Street, Haymarket and Piccadilly Circus public realm

Westminster City Council and The Crown Estate are working together on an ambitious project to transform Regent Street, Haymarket and Piccadilly Circus for the future vitality of the West End and London. 

The project will ensure that these iconic streets are more sustainable, inclusive and accessible, while preserving and enhancing their world class heritage, so the millions of people and hundreds of businesses that use these spaces every year will be able to experience the very best that London’s West End has to offer.   

Ultimately, the project aspires to reimagine John Nash's original ambition to connect St James's Park with Regent's Park in a way that allows these places to continue to make a huge contribution to the UK economy and be resilient well into the future. 

An ongoing partnership

In January 2024, Westminster City Council in partnership with The Crown Estate agreed to develop a public realm design for Regent Street, Haymarket, and Piccadilly Circus, as outlined in the related Cabinet Report.   

As the main landowner of its buildings, The Crown Estate is the custodian of Regent Street covering the area from All Souls Church to Waterloo Place, alongside having significant ownership on Haymarket and Piccadilly Circus. The City Council are the Highways Authority and responsible for the management of the West End’s public realm and streets. 

 Both partners believe that through active engagement and dialogue with local and wider users of the street, we can understand their experience to inform the best public realm design for these places.

Regent Street public realm vision

As part of the Cabinet decision made in January 2024, the Regent Street Public Realm Vision report was published. This vision report was informed by an extensive programme of engagement with the public during the summer and autumn 2023. It brings together the outcomes of this engagement and outlines the collective priorities that are important to those who live, work, and visit Regent Street. It also details case studies and learnings from other global cities where streets and places have seen significant change successfully introduced. 

The engagement results highlighted that as one of the world’s most famous streets, Regent Street must explore new opportunities to adapt to our changing climate and evolving city trends through innovative ways of designing the public realm. 3,500 people had their say, with three themes emerging as the most important. These were: 

• prioritising pedestrian experience; 

• preserving heritage; and 

• introducing nature and greening. 

As we embark on this ambitious design process, the new vision for the future of Regent Street’s public realm will guide us at every step of the way. 

Read the Public Realm Vision Report and Appendix to find out more:

Document

Regent Street Public Realm Report PDF, 9.09 MB, 40 pages

Document

Regent Street Public Realm Report appendix PDF, 8.54 MB, 18 pages

Haymarket Vision

Throughout 2023, The Crown Estate was also engaging with local stakeholders to assess the public realm opportunities for Haymarket, Charles II Street, and Jermyn Street East as part of its confirmed development and investment programme for these streets.  As their ambitions and those of local stakeholders for this part of the West End were aligned with the Council’s City Plan policy, Westminster’s Cabinet agreed to expand the scope of the Regent Street Public Realm project to include these streets along with Piccadilly Circus. 

Over 730 people had their say as part of The Crown Estate’s engagement activities looking at the Future of Haymarket, with three themes emerging as the most important. These were: 

• Celebrate the rich history 

• A cohesive public realm 

• Champion sustainability and urban greening 

Find out more about the engagement The Crown Estate has conducted on the future of the Haymarket area. 

What happens next?

The Council and The Crown Estate have now jointly appointed Allies and Morrison, a leading architecture and urban design practice based in London, who will be leading a consortium of designers to help design and deliver our shared vision. As well as being a leading practice globally, Allies and Morrison bring specialist expertise in conservation and urban research.  

We are at the early stages of the project and are developing various options for the future street layout for Regent Street, Haymarket, and Piccadilly Circus. We will test these options with people who live, work, and visit the area as part of upcoming engagement activities. Over the next 18 months, we expect to run three rounds of public engagement to shape and guide the public realm design for these streets: 

• Spring 2025: public engagement on Street Layout and Movement Options; 

• Autumn 2025: public engagement on Public Realm Design; 

• Summer 2026: statutory consultation on the finalised design.   

The project will also be informed and advised on by a Design and Engagement Advisory Panel., starting from January 2025. This group brings together diverse representatives from key organisations or groups on behalf of people who live, work, and visit the area (including people with a range of protected characteristics). The purpose of this group is to inform the development of the public realm design and engagement activities throughout the lifetime of the project, to help the project deliver the best experience for as many people as possible.  

Get involved

Together we believe we can create the very best experience for those who live in the area and the millions of people who work, own businesses, visit, shop, and socialise here. This can be achieved by continuing to work with all of you and to produce a public realm design that responds to opportunities and challenges and reflects the status of these areas of the West End, both locally and internationally.  

If you require any further information or would like to receive updates about the programme, please get in touch with the project team at [email protected].