4. structuring the place – reinforcing the neighbourhood

04_structuring the place

reinforcing the neighbourhood

This section builds upon the Council’s Commonhall Street Development Brief and the residents’ workshops held beforehand and afterwards. This is a process of structuring the place to make sense of and pull together this neighbourhood. It seeks also to tackle the detailed issues identified in this report’s analysis. It’s about reinforcing the ‘place’.

(Note – all these diagrams include the proposed new development at the corner of Commonhall Street and Pierpoint Court)

reinforcing urban form and space

The analysis of the urban form of the area illustrates: • The strong and understandable built form along White Friars and Cuppin Street. • The open space at the ‘heart’ of the neighbourhood at Commonhall Street. • The dense network of lanes and alley links radiating from this ‘heart’ – the hub of the neighbourhood’s connectivity. • The clear weakening of this urban form towards the west – replaced by the gardens and walls of White Friars. • The lost city spaces: » At the junction of Bridge Street / Grosvenor Street / Pepper Street – at an important gateway to the core of the city » At the junction of Cuppin Street / Grosvenor Street. • The ‘hidden’ square at the eastern end of Back Weaver Street.

Figure 01: figure ground diagrambuilt form & spaces including lost spaces

strong and active street frontages

Strong and active street frontages dominate the core of the area. This will be reinforced when the new development at the corner of Commonhall Steet and Pierpoint Court is completed.

Cuppin Street and much of White Friars have continuous frontages with front doors facing the street. The lost urban spaces identified previously at the eastern end of Cuppin Street and at the junction of Grosvenor Street, Bridge Street and Pepper Street, again emerge as lost ‘squares’ with their active street frontages of shops, restaurants and offices and, in the latter, a landmark former church tower.

The eastern end of Commonhall Street and Pierpoint Court will also have continuous street frontages, reinforced by the run of commercial premises fronting Commonhall Street. The eastern frontage to Pierpoint Court is however dominated by blank rears of buildings and a vacant building.

Active street frontages fall away nearer to Weaver Street.

Back Weaver Street however, has a fractured street frontage pattern – of rears of buildings, gap sites, poor boundary treatments and large car parking areas.

Again, this illustrates Commonhall Street/Pierpoint Court as the ‘heart’ of the neighbourhood with clear ‘radial’ linkages to the main shopping streets. It also illustrates the strong street patterns in White Friars and Cuppin Street.

Figure 02: active and strong frontages, including the emerging neighbourhood 'heart'

strenghtening the emerging heart of the neighbourhood - Commonhall Square

The eastern end of Commonhall Street and Pierpoint Court emerge as the ‘heart’ of the area with:

• The proto-square at Commonhall Street as the urban form opens up. • The strong and distinctive urban form and street frontage pattern. • The sub-division of the area into smaller distinctive spaces. • Its all-round connectivity through lanes and alleys to both Watergate Street and Bridge Street and surrounding parts of the neighbourhood – making it the real ‘hub’ of the neighbourhood and its connectivity. • The clear ‘gateway’ at the junction of Commonhall Street and Back Weaver Street.

Figure 03: the emerging 'heart' of the neighbourhood including the distinctive spaces that it comprises

enhancing spaces and connectivity

The urban form and street frontage pattern reveals the series of linked spaces that make up the area – a rich pattern that illustrates that the area is potentially well connected and highly permeable – albeit very difficult to understand and navigate, with little attempt at wayfinding. This is understandable as until now there was little of real merit to find – however, this is changing with a growing urban neighbourhood now emerging.

These spaces are in many cases ill-formed or are forgotten under a layer of patchy surface treatments, and traffic management clutter.

They are waiting to be rediscovered to reinforce the rich intricacy of this neighbourhood and the city centre generally.

Figure 04: spaces and connectivity