Regeneration

Both Islington council and the community are agreed that the Archway area would benefit from regeneration. The problem is that new buildings alone do not regenerate an area unless they also stimulate both social and economic activity.

In fact, as is clear from the previous attempts at Archway, new structures can actually blight an area. This can happen if they are physically inappropriate (as is the case with the Archway Tower) and/or they don't generate new social or economic activity. Adddressing those key issues and ensuring a high quality environment, strengthens an area's sense of identity and attractiveness. If both are boosted, that draws more people to the area and generates more positive activity of all kinds.

The Better Archway Forum brainstorming sessions have come up with a number of ideas which could benefit the area - whether there is any new building or not. These include:

Housing and Transport

Because of concern about the impact on local shops of losing the current population of office workers, it might be better to reconsider the whole issue of the public transport system which is needed to cater to the new housing. One option would be to reopen the old Junction Road rail station on Station Road off the Junction Road, as part of the scheme to increase use of the existing cross London rail networks. The neighbouring trading estate could be used as a site for the required extra housing. This would mean less pressure on the Northern Line, although as the Station Road is only around 100 yards from Tufnell Park Station, a link between the Northern Line and the Gospel Oak to Barking Line would be feasible.

Meanwhile at Archway gather all the north and south bus route stops in the road next to the tube station currently used by northbound traffic, with pinch points to facilitate pedestrian access. Placing all the bus stops in this area would mean that there was no longer a need for the extra width in the Junction Road, which could be boosted by widening the paving, particularly on the southern side.

Boosting Business

The London Plan is finding that the areas originally designated for new business clusters in arts/media/software etc (eg Spitalfields/Hoxton) are becoming too expensive. Archway is much cheaper and has office space which might well be suitable. Gaining this kind of 'preferred' status would bring new money and life to the area and if successful would ripple out into support services for the growing businesses.

A Boost from Art

A single destination attraction such as an art gallery can give all its surroundings a big lift - as happened with Southwark and the Tate Modern. There are a number of large, underused buildings in the area which could also be used as galleries, performance space etc.

Markets

In French towns where weekly markets bring everyone together regularly. These have much less impact on local shops and offer fresh food considerably more cheaply than supermarkets. There could be different markets on different days, clothes, farmers' market etc.

Specialist shops

Create an area of specialist shops, building on what is already there - in the case of Archway, tools and hardware, electrical goods, timber, bathroom and plumbing.

Environment / greenery

Shift the area's focus from roads to available green spaces - making a 'green walk' connecting Archway to the Heath via Girdlestone Estate, Raydon Street (with recently created Secret Garden), through to Chester Road and Highgate Cemetery, Swains Lane to the Heath. Also Waterlow Park and reservoir park next to Bickerton Road.