Culture Mile Public Realm Strategy

Client: Culture Mile Business Improvement District
Dates: September 2023 - November 2024
Location: City of London



The Culture Mile, in the north-west corner of the City of London, is a place of creative exchange, cultural collaboration and learning, in an area where 2,000 years of history collide with the world’s best in culture. It stretches just under a mile from Farringdon to Moorgate and is home to some of London’s most renowned cultural institutions - the Barbican, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London Symphony Orchestra and Museum of London - plus a wealth of smaller cultural organisations, hidden heritage, home to the City of London Corporation, a large residential community, and major businesses.

The desire for improvements in the Culture Mile and nearby areas led to the formation of the Culture Mile Business Improvement District (BID), in April 2023. The BID has identified priorities to guide its work, including improving public realm quality and using it as a platform to express cultural activities, enhancing wayfinding and navigation, and promoting green and climate resilience initiatives. They will invest £9m into the area over the next five years, working in partnership to deliver a range of ambitious public realm enhancements. Ultimately, this work will support the nature of the area as a major destination for visitors, and attract further investment to support vitality.



AR Urbanism has worked in partnership with Steer to prepare a Public Realm Vision and Strategy for the BID area. The aim is to identify public realm and placemaking improvements that enhance the area’s function and attractiveness for a wide range of users - residents, workers, visitors - and create a strong identity as a destination.

In-depth analysis coupled with stakeholder and public engagement led to the identification of a clear set of issues and opportunities to address. This informed a vision for change, and a strategy identifying a hierarchy of pedestrian routes and public spaces. Focus areas along these routes were identified as key places where improvement was needed, acknowledging synergies with an array of other public realm and development projects. 

A project bank of potential interventions was developed. The interventions are place-specific improvements, and encompass elements such as wayfinding, art activation, place-branding, heritage celebration and interpretation, greening, cultural platforming, pedestrian and cycle infrastructure, streetscape enhancements, and new/improved public spaces. This includes smaller-scale ‘quick win’ elements that are readily deliverable, as well as ambitious and innovative longer-term projects. For a selection of priority places we prepared concept designs with illustrative sketches.



The selection of interventions was informed by an assessment against project-specific Key Performance Indicators, along with a review of cost, timescales, deliverability, and likely sensitivities. Several rounds of engagement with BID members, property owners, stakeholders, community groups and key partners including the City of London have shaped the work into a robust and strongly supported set of design ideas, with a focus on deliverability.   

Following approval by the BID’s Steering Group and Board, the Strategy was publicly launched in November 2024. It will be used as a means by which the BID can engage with various delivery partners to take interventions forward.