Headington Centre Improvement Plan 

Client: Headington Action

Partners: Wedderburn Transport Planning

Status: Completed 2023

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Headington Centre — Concept for London Road

Background

Headington Action (HA) is taking direct action to plan the future of their local centre, Headington, in the eastern suburbs of Oxford. Established following the adoption of the Headington Neighbourhood Plan, HA is a charity whose remit is to benefit those who live, work and study in Headington. Working with HA, local people in Headington have put together a vision for the future of Headington Centre. This is focused on making the centre welcoming, inclusive, and easily accessible for all, fostering active travel, a stronger identity, lively gathering spaces and supporting a vibrant evening economy.

Brief

HA commissioned AR Urbanism with the support of Wedderburn Transport Planning to develop a design strategy to improve the centre and realise the vision. The project was financed via Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding, with the support of Oxford City Council.

Headington Centre — Concept for Kennett Road Plaza

Headington is a vibrant neighbourhood, with a strong and diverse community, a rich history - including several listed buildings - in an attractive setting. It is multifunctional; a highly residential area with a growing population plus the location of many renowned institutions and universities standing at the forefront of innovation, science, research and education in the UK. At the heart of the neighbourhood is Headington Centre, focused on the retail area along the busy London Road (A420). The centre is home to over 150 businesses providing shops, services and facilities catering for residents, workers and visitors. It is home of the popular - and growing - Saturday Market, and includes part of Bury Knowle Park, a much-loved local green space.

Challenges

However, the centre faces a number of challenges. London Road is a heavily trafficked major arterial route connecting to Oxford City Centre. The volume of vehicular movement makes it uncomfortable to walk and cycle. Away from Bury Knowle Park there are no significant areas of public space for people to pause and spend time in. The townscape and streetscape also lacks a strong sense of identity. Moreover, like town centres across the UK the centre is being affected by significant social, economic and lifestyle changes resulting in a dwindling variety of retail offer. In addition, the wide array of important business, medical and educational institutions located in the wider neighbourhood are neither visible in nor well-connected to the centre.


The firstly investigated these challenges and more via a baseline appraisal. The results of which provided the project team with the evidence upon which to develop a new vision and recommendations. Wide-ranging analysis considered key place characteristics, including townscape, natural environment, uses and amenities, movement, and property ownership. Some of the key findings resulting from this included:

• London Road has an almost continuous active frontage, with a mix of town centre uses, but the evening economy is limited in number and geography.
• Pedestrian network connectivity analysis highlighted how the institutional campuses sit uneasily within the traditional street grid, making them unintuitive to navigate to/from.
• There are high levels of cycling, but cycling conditions are inhibited by the lack of infrastructure, high traffic volumes, and kerbside activity (bus stops, parking, loading).
• Despite relatively recent streetscape improvements, the public realm inhibits pedestrian movement via poorly positioned street furniture, level changes, pinchpoints, and signage clutter.
• The townscape offers a consistent degree of grain, scale and enclosure, however it  is not very attractive or distinctive, and heritage is not celebrated.      

These and other strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) were distilled and applied to HA’s vision, re-interpreting it via a series of six design objectives. This formed both a precursor to and framework for developing ten key ideas for improvements, including:

• Creating distinctive ‘gateway’ areas to the centre, announcing its presence and calming traffic.
• Turning areas of footway and carriageway into ‘pocket’ plazas with greening and seating.
• Strengthening place identity with art interventions, feature lighting, heritage interpretation, shop front and facade improvements. 
• Enhancing walking and accessibility via decluttering, level remediation, and crossing improvements. 
• Establishing a hub in the centre, for multipurpose use by the local community and institutions.
• Measures to support the operation and growth of the Saturday Market.
• A complete reimagining of London Road in the long-term, reallocating space to widen footways and provide cycle infrastructure.  

Headington Centre — Concept for Osler Road Plaza

The project team’s work was informed by extensive engagement with the local community and a range of key stakeholders. This commenced with an event at the annual Headington Festival, to introduce the project and launch an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was aimed at residents and businesses and received over 300 responses, providing the team with a solid baseline understanding of local challenges and opportunities for change. This was supplemented by online workshops with key stakeholders - local businesses, institutions, community groups, and councillors - and technical meetings with City and County officers to confirm issues and test emerging ideas. The draft strategy was showcased at an exhibition, attracting over 150 people, where it received overwhelmingly positive support. 

The final strategy will be used by HA to: generate support and build momentum for change; as a basis for funding bids for specific projects; and as a high-level brief to guide design work related to specific interventions.

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You can view our final report from the Headington Action website here.