A Strategy for Reshaping the City Centre

This is a strategy aimed at addressing structural deficiencies which deals with:

  • The “Band of Activity” – Focus for Day-to-Day Life in the City
  • The Role of the Market Place
  • All Streets Lead to the Market Place
  • Feeder Routes, Approaches and Gateways
  • A Network of Linked Squares and Spaces
  • A North South Spine
  • World Heritage Site Management Plan
  • The Necklace Park to and through the City centre – the River Reaches

THE “BAND OF ACTIVITY” – FOCUS FOR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE IN THE CITY
An analysis of the City centre has revealed that, while the Peninsula is symbolic of the City as a whole, it plays a relatively minor role in the day to day life of the City and its citizens, being used mainly by students, visitors and as part of the City centre network of pathways and roads. Day to day activity is concentrated in a band of the City centre between the west end of North Road and Old Elvet with a short extension north of Leazes Road in Claypath.

This is the intensive core of City centre activities – shopping, entertainment, culture, employment – and the focus is the Market Place. This area needs to be reinforced in this role and will remain the focus for City centre activities, but it is constrained with very limited potential for growth. Thus perceptions will need to shift about its ability to change, barriers will need to be breached and the core of the City centre extended – in Claypath, in Old Elvet, and with a stronger and more integrated role for North Road.

THE ROLE OF THE MARKET PLACE
Despite the radical changes that have taken place to the road network in the City, any analysis of the structure of the City centre still indicates that, in the day to day life of its citizens, the Market Place is the most important space bar none, and this needs to be reflected in its design, finishes, management and promotion. It has the potential to be the most important commercial asset as a focus in the City centre for events, setting the tone for the whole shopping area and reinforcing its uniqueness.

This importance demands a fresh start for the Market Place secured through design and construction of the highest quality, based on a clear brief for its role and functions. This should be focused through an international landscape design competition, with the commitment and resources to see through the implementation of the winning scheme.

The Market Place must be carefully maintained, managed and marketed. It needs to be kept clean, uncluttered, safe and welcoming. The needs of the many different users –commercial, community and visitors – must be balanced sensitively on a day-byday basis. And, like any theatrical venue, the Market Place deserves a programme of ‘performances’ (both planned and spontaneous) to bring it to life.

ALL STREETS LEAD TO THE MARKET PLACE
While all traffic routes now bypass the Market Place, it is still the focal point for the entire main street network in the City centre and the walking routes there. However, changes to the traffic network that resulted from the construction of Leazes Road have created real or potential new connections but serve pedestrians poorly, and so need to be transformed. Particular areas in need of change are:

Claypath Bridge over Leazes Road which disrupts the continuity of Claypath and its shopping frontages, and separates the cultural quarter from the Market Place.

Millburngate Bridge which has very poor pedestrian facilities and yet is signposted as a primary route into the City centre from the station; it is particularly poorly connected to the Market Place. The north end of The Gates Shopping Centre is isolated from the rest of the City centre but new and better pedestrian bridges would create much improved connections to the Market Place and complete a new shopper’s circuit.

New Elvet which separates the area of Old Elvet from the City centre because traffic is perceived to have priority. A new approach to this junction to create a square through which the road passes would reduce severance.

FEEDER ROUTES, APPROACHES AND GATEWAYS
The road network has also made the City centre isolated from the rest of the surrounding City by giving priority to traffic and creating huge junctions that are holes in the fabric of the City. As a result each approach to the City centre has a poor sense of arrival – rather than an intensification of the built fabric that heralds the City centre, there is a large roundabout in an empty space. These also sever historic street connections into the City centre from the inner suburbs of the town, separating City centre communities from the City centre proper.

This problem is acute at:

  • The Junction of Castle Chare and North Road
  • The Junction of Leazes Road and Framwellgate Peth
  • The Junction of Leazes Road and New Elvet
  • The junction of Leazes Road and Gilesgate
  • The junction of New and Old Elvet

This severance should be reversed to greater priority to pedestrian access to the City centre and by reconfiguration to signal controlled junctions that are defined and enclosed by new development and by a high quality public realm. It should be possible to do this without significant adverse effects on traffic capacity.

The County Council, through its Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) is constructing a computer model which will allow such proposals to be fully investigated.

Reshaping the City Centre

A NETWORK OF LINKED SQUARES AND SPACES

The Market Place is the heart of the City and is the most important urban space, but it is one of a network of larger urban spaces that provide social focal points to parts of the City centre. In some parts this pattern is clear and old established – Palace Green, Old Elvet, the Station forecourt. In some parts this pattern has been strengthened recently – Millennium Place, Back Silver Street. But in many places there is considerable potential to create new larger spaces within the City centre or to reconfigure existing spaces that will create focal points to parts of the City that will reinforce the character of the City centre’s Quarters. In particular these will be:

…. at City centre gateways:

  • North Road
  • Gilesgate
  • Junction of Leazes Road and Millburngate
  • The Railway Station …. or on major streets:
  • New Elvet
  • New Elvet and Church Street
  • Claypath …. or in the heart of some of the Quarters:
  • Old Swimming Pool site
  • The Gates Shopping Centre …. or alongside the River
  •  Old Elvet Riverside
  • Elvet Place
  • Millburngate House
  • Former Ice Rink site

These are all dealt with in detail in the Quarter Chapters below.

A NORTH SOUTH CULTURAL SPINE
The City Council’s existing visitor management strategy is focused on a route that runs from: long term parking, coach stops and hotels at Framwellgate Riverside; through Walkergate and Millennium Place, including the Visitor Information Centre; through the Market Place into Saddler Street; and then to the Castle and Cathedral.

At present there is little incentive to venture further, though there are significant cultural assets not well linked into this route – the University’s Oriental Museum (acknowledged as one of the finest such collections in the UK), and the University’s Botanic Gardens which both lie on the south bank of the river to the south of the Peninsula and the Durham Light Infantry Museum and Durham Art Gallery with its stunning green surroundings, lying to the north of the City centre at Aykley heads. This could be anchored by the potential for a visitor centre on the peninsula itself.

Much of the north-south spine is already in place or in the process of being constructed. The northern extension to Aykley Heads is frustrated by the current steep slopes and the plan and layout of of Millburngate House as it does not allow public and pedestrian movement from Framwellgate Waterside to Framwellgate itself.

There is a theoretical onward connection via Prebends Bridge at the south end of the Peninsula but this is circuitous and requires negotiation of steep slopes. Rather, it is proposed to investigate the possibility of a new and dramatic high level pedestrian bridge to create a direct connection from South Bailey toward the main University Campus which would provide a connection with spectacular views of the Gorge but without the need to go down to the River and up the other side.

This would complete the North-South Cultural Spine, and would create much improved connection between parts of the University for students and academics and could open up new parts of the City to visitors.

THE NECKLACE PARK TO AND THROUGH THE CITY CENTRE
The Necklace Park is described in the Durham City Vision as a key link between the City and the surrounding communities. The ribbon of the River and its enabling footpaths and bridleways will be enhanced through a range of environmental and landscape improvements so that it is capable of reinforcing this important cultural and social role.

The concept for the Necklace Park outside of the City centre is being developed as part of a separate programme to the City centre Durham City Vision, and this programme will also develop strategies for the management and promotion of the Necklace Park within the City centre.

Within the City centre the Necklace Park becomes the focus for the major development and public realm investment projects that gather around the River. These will form a network of places gathered around sections of the River. Whereas in the past the River has been seen as a divider that separated parts of the City centre, the combination of development sites and the needs for new and improved crossing points has created opportunities for the River to become a focal point of new spaces. These should be named places on the River, “Reaches” as in the Reaches on the Thames, albeit at a smaller scale. These Reaches will be defined by the existing and proposed bridge crossings, and are as follows (from North to south upstream):

  • Sands Reach north of the Millennium Bridge – tranquil and rural, the transition from country to City on the northern approach.

Sands Reach
Necklace Park - Amenities
Necklace Park - Land

  • Framwellgate Reach Millennium Bridge to Millburngate Bridge – the clasp on the “necklace” connecting the City to the River

Framwellgate Reach

  • Millburngate Reach Millburngate Bridge to Framwellgate Bridge – a quiet oasis away from, but close to, the shopping streets.
  • Mill Reach between Framwellgate Bridge and Prebends Bridge – the gorges western approach, views of the Cathedral.
  • College Reach between Prebends Bridge and Kingsgate Bridge – the deep gorge where the lost gardens are found.
  • Kingsgate Reach between Kingsgate Bridge and Elvet Bridge – eastern approach, central to the University.
  • Elvet Reach from Elvet Bridge to University – bustle, revealing City centre life.
  • Old Elvet Reach from Elvet Bridge to Baths Bridge – new residential community and established University life.
  • Racecourse Reach east of Baths Bridge – eastern transition from country to City, sports and recreation.

Racecourse Reach

  • Racecourse Reach east of Baths Bridge – eastern transition from country to City, sports and recreation.

Old Elvet Reach

These places are complementary to the structure of Quarters as they are the seams that bind the parts of the City centre together. Some require little change – the sections of the River around the Peninsula for example – while others will see radical change with the River at the centre of everything – Framwellgate Reach, Millburngate Reach, Old Elvet Reach. These proposals are dealt with in detail in the Quarters Sections of this Durham City Vision.

To this end, each “Reach” on the River must be considered in relation to:

  • The surrounding and adjoining activities, uses and built form
  • The relationship with the adjoining Reaches
  • The degree and quality of access to the water’s Edge
  • The consistent and appropriate landscape treatment around the Reach, including signage and street furniture

WORLD HERITAGE SITE MANAGEMENT PLAN
World Heritage Sites (WHS) are of international importance for the conservation of cultural and natural heritage. There are currently 812 WHSs globally – including the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza and the Grand Canyon. The UK currently has 26 WHSs including the Tower of London, Hadrian’s Wall and Stonehenge. Durham Cathedral and Castle became a WHS in 1986.

The (WHS) is currently centred on the Cathedral, Castle and Prebends Bridge. Its boundaries and functions are to be enshrined in a Management Plan which will be reviewed from time to time and through which the boundaries of the WHS can be expanded. The draft WHS Management Plan aims to conserve the site, enhance the character of the site and its surroundings for the benefit of local communities and visitors and to maintain the site’s active role as a religious, education and residential environment. It was published for public consultation on 7 June 2006. The draft Plan contains 27 objectives for the management of the WHS and it is the intention to monitor and review these objectives every six years. It also proposes that the two existing boundaries of the WHS be joined through the inclusion into the WHS of Palace Green.

MAPPING, WAYMARKING AND SIGNAGE
The City centre requires a comprehensive review of waymarking, both in terms of signage and in terms of the marking of particular walking routes by symbols. Given that such signage is addressed primarily at people unfamiliar with the City centre, it must be used sparingly but consistently, and be used to signpost routes that show the City centre off to greatest advantage and are logical routes.

By way of example, the route from the railway station to the City centre should be signposted to take people down Station Approach and into North Road from which the layout of the urban fabric gives a clear indication of the route to the Market Place and the City centre. At present the route is confusing and delivers people into one of several locations with no obvious onward route and with a poor local environment. Apart from its obvious functional purpose of directing people, good signage will be used to tell the many fascinating stories of Durham. It can highlight the historic, cultural and commercial character of the City; and it can help to forge conceptual links in the users mind.

Today’s signage may be virtual as well as physical. By using digital technologies, messages can be changed in real time, according to – for example – the time of day, or the mix of users on the streets. Like the best media, signage and interpretation can be used to inform, entertain and educate, all at once, while giving local people and visitors a chance to explore the City and meet like-minded individuals and communities of interest 24 hours a day, online. In such a small City with such a rich history, the temptation to over-interpret should be avoided. Durham is not a theme park it is a truly authentic, historic City. Full interpretation, communication and discussion about the City’s meaning, history, amenities and activities can take place online, and in the growing centres of life-long learning such as the Clayport Library, in the academic institutions, libraries and museums of Durham City and in the potential new Visitor Centre’s on Palace Green.