Bunhill community plan

Whitecross Street Party

Compton Street Park Playground

Vibast Community Centre

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £740,206

This gives five years of funding for the Vibast Community Centre, covering running costs, maintenance, and a number of different projects.

Finsbury Wellbeing Campus

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £27,268
• Community Infrastructure Levy: £1,500,000

This will replace the old building with wind and watertight building. The new building will have more accommodation for rentals or hires and shared use of space to support sustainability of the adventure playground. The works will mean demolishing and removing the current log cabin before building ecological and economical building.

SoapBox Youth Centre

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £50,000
• Community Infrastructure Levy: £40,000

The funding will mean that SoapBox Youth Centre can provide a wide range of projects and programmes including audio-visual production, repair, recycle, reuse and focus all its work on Mondays for young women. Some funding will go towards upgrading IT to support projects and offer young people the chance to use industry standard equipment. Funding will also support building upgrades to make sure it remains a fresh and inviting space.

Triangle Estate improvements

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £1,124,055

This will improve security and public realm across the estate. This includes installing a modern, more reliable door entry system to increase resident safety and access control. The project will upgrade shared outdoor areas with new street trees, refreshed paving, and low level planting, creating a greener, more welcoming environment for everyone who lives on and visits the estate.

Tompion House play area 

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £66,000

The current play area needs an upgrade and the surface is in poor condition. We will improve the play value and safety of this play area by creating a more exciting playground that will encourage safe but challenging play. It will encourage safe risk taking, help develop motor skills and encourage playing together.

Redbrick Estate wildflower meadow

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £30,000

The project aims to create a new natural children's playground for toddlers and young children. It will include natural sensory play equipment. Redbrick estate has no outdoor playground facilities on the estate and this will be a safe space for young children to play outside while using natural play equipment that blends into the environment.

Bunhill Heritage project

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £35,600
• Section 106: £214,400

The project looks to explore the rich heritage of the ward of Bunhill and nearby sites. It will use skills-based activities, classes, crafts, and workshops to build community. The project will collaborate with community organisations that share a connected heritage, including the St. Luke's Community Centre.

Bunhill Inclusive Economy Initiatives

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £104,000

The Old Street tech cluster is one of the largest tech concentrations in the world but has very few opportunities for local people. This funding would look to increase local employment in the tech and knowledge economy, support new local affordable workspaces and back young local entrepreneurship.

Prior Weston Primary School playground redevelopment

• Community Infrastructure Levy: £400,000

The funding will help redevelop Prior Weston Primary School play areas. The works will make sure these spaces are accessible for all, including special educational needs or disability (SEND) pupils.

There has been no upgrade to the schools play areas since the school opened. The proposed works will include a forest school area, sensory garden, and outdoor classroom, all available for the community to use outside of school hours. Redevelopment of the nursery and reception play areas will include big groundworks to make sure the playground surface is safe, as well as providing up to date accessible play equipment.

St. Johns Street Pedestrian and Public Improvements

• Community Infrastructure Levy: £491,279
• Section 106: £1,518,053

This will fund public space improvements on St Johns Street, between Clerkenwell Road and Charterhouse Street. The works include more pedestrian space, improvements for cyclists and changes to traffic management in the area to reduce non-local traffic, which may include a road closure. 

Bunhill Estates Residents Secure Cycle Parking

• Section 106: £44,000

This will fund more secure, covered, cycle storage for residents living at:

• Lagonier House
• Pleydell Estate
• Wenlake Estate
• Whitbread Estate
• Whitecross Estate

Fortune Street Park

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £250,000
• Section 106: £420,175

The design upgraded the existing layout of the park to make it more welcoming and accessible to a wide range of park users. It also improved the playground and added a more inclusive natural play facility. Works have increased the park’s ecology and biodiversity, and there's now a comprehensive planting strategy in line with the park’s Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) status.

St. Luke's Community Centre 

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £2,236
• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £21,764

This investment has supported St Luke’s wide-reaching community activities and events programmes. This has included free classes, workshops and outings for children, adults, families and older people, as well as a big programme of community events. 

St Luke's Wellbeing Hub

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £35,000

The funding has supported turning the IT training centre on Central Street into a new neighbourhood wellbeing hub for food collection.

St Luke's Over 55s Gardening Project

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £35,000

The funding allows St Luke’s to offer 30 weekly health and wellbeing gardening and creative sessions. These are for older people living with limited mobility, disabilities and mental or physical health conditions in the EC1 area of the borough.

Central Foundation Boys School

Contributions from:

• Community Infrastructure Levy: £2,614,134
• Section 106: £85,866

The contribution refurbished and expanded the Central Foundation Boys School. 

Barnabas House Walkway

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £75,000

The funding went towards measures to reduce anti-social behaviour in the walkway beneath Barnabas House. These include CCTV installation, the redesign of glass walls and landscaping.

Golden Lane Children's Centre - Outdoor Ecology Area

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £50,000

The funding was used for an outdoor ecology area for the Golden Lane Children's Centre. The works included the planting of more evergreen plants, the introduction of more planting areas and small growing spaces for each year group. It also installed new flooring and play equipment.

City YMCA - Youth Intervention (NASCENT)

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £10,000

The City YMCA led on helping young people into work including interactive workshops, pathways to employment work experience and follow-on training. This included mentoring and coaching young people, supporting them as they responded to real life work opportunities and apprenticeships, attended interviews and took up new roles. It means attendees can confidently sustain employment, increasing their value to local businesses.

St Luke's Community Centre - Roof Terrace

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £26,350

Building works to for St Luke's to convert its roof area into a terrace garden by strengthening the roof structure and tiling the floor.

St Luke's Estate Playground

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £110,000

The project upgraded and replaced the outdated playground equipment at St Luke's estate with a new, modern playground, including resurfacing and upgrading the embankment. Improving and redesigning the play area meant more inclusive play opportunities for children of all ages and abilities, as the new design is for a wider age range of users, including a multi play sensory space.

Wenlake Estate Playground

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £1,629

This was used for improvements to the Wenlake Estate playground, including a traditional and appropriate play space to increase the use of the area.

Stafford Cripps Estate - open space

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £56,415

Improvements to the shed roofs, the renewal of plant beds, refurbishment of the lobby areas, public space improvements and improvements to the playground, lighting and landscaping.

Gambier House Public Realm Improvements

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £39,280

Improvements including the removal of defective railings and installing new railings, outdoor lighting improvements and resurfacing pathways.

Stafford Cripps Estate - Cycle Storage

Contributions from:

• Community Infrastructure Levy: £17,116

More cycle storage on an empty area of land on the estate.

Coltash Court Planters

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £10,000)

The funding supported the installation of more greenery at Coltash Court. The works included two new planters to transform and improve the space, creating more greenery.

Quaker Court Landscaping Improvements

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £30,000

The funding improved the communal gardens at Quaker Court with better landscaping, increased planting, refreshed garden features, and upgraded shared green areas. These improvements created a more attractive, welcoming and usable outdoor space for all residents to enjoy, encouraging more use of the communal gardens and support wellbeing across the estate.

Small Scale Environmental Improvements on Estates

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £150,000
• Strategic Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £200,000

The funding supported small-scale improvements on a range of estates.

Lagonier House

The funding repaired brickwork to brick planters to the right hand side of Lagonier House, new CCTV cameras to cover blind spots and works to reconstruct the surface of the rear carpark.

Chadworth House

Works included removing unnecessary signs, fixtures and fittings from the outside shared areas, lighting upgrades, tidying and improving the lavender plants and tree planters and resurfacing the rear area paving in red tarmac to match the rest of the estate.

St Lukes Estate

New bin enclosures to Godfrey House and Patterson Court to improve fire safety, and extra CCTV cameras to cover blind spots.

Whitecross Estate

Removed unnecessary raised planters from next to Coltash Court and repurposed on another estate.

Whitbread Estate

Works included removing unnecessary signs, fixtures and fitting from the outside shared areas, upgraded column lights and repainted posts, and ordered new block signs for installing.

Braithwaite House

Removing unnecessary signs, fixtures and fitting from the outside shared areas.

Spa Green

Artwork for estate maps with the Tenant Management Organisation involvement to be manufactured and installed.

St Luke's Estate 3D Art installation

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £300,000

A local artist designed and installed a piece of public artwork as the centrepiece for the estate.

Bunhill Ward Tree Planting

Contributions from:

• Strategic Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £50,000
• Section 106: £3,060

This funded extra street tree planting in the ward, in line with the tree strategy during the April 2020 to March 2021 planting season. Locations included Bunhill Row, Fortune Street Gardens, Kings Square Gardens and Quaker Court.

Radnor Street Park playground improvements

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £30,000
• Section 106: £20,000

The project introduced new play equipment at the park to make a more engaging and exciting space for children. 

Moreland Children's Centre rooftop terrace community play garden

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £40,000

This created a community play garden on the large first floor terrace of the children's centre. Local families with children under five use the space. The terrace is accessible to all families using the children’s centre outreach and early childhood services.

Quaker Gardens public art

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £2,125

The project made a series of new public murals in public areas of Quaker Court and Braithwaite House, which are the gateways to historic Quaker Gardens.

Whitecross Street public art

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £16,846

The funding made a series of semi-permanent and permanent public art works in the street environment in and around the Whitecross Street area. The works improved the physical landscape, encouraging more use of the existing public space and community facilities in the area.

Old Station Shaft on Central Street and City Road - public art

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £94,595

The project commissioned an artist to develop artwork as part of the structure for the Bunhill II Energy Centre.

The artist proposed a series of cast aluminium panels at street level on the building and for the ventilation shaft structure. The cast aluminium reliefs were based on an architectural analysis of the social housing that benefits from the Bunhill II Energy Centre. The work produced 70 cast relief aluminium panels and brackets by a contracted foundry, with some areas of colour by the artist.

St Luke's Primary School - New Science, Art and Design Technology Classroom

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £140,000

The funding went towards a new single storey classroom that stands alone from the main building and is big enough for 30 pupils. The classroom has extensive shelving, storage and resources, including recycling resources.

Moreland Primary School expansion and outside play spaces

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £1,360,562

The project funded works to the outside play areas including landscaping and planting, sail shades, a sensory garden, planting boxes for children, sand and water play features, and play equipment such as a playhouse, climbing structure and slide.

Bath Street traffic reduction scheme

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £50,000

The proposal reversed Bath Street between Peerless Street and Old Street and supported a School Street for St Luke’s Primary School.

Baltic Street West and Crescent Row public realm improvements

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £160,000

This created a new public space by moving the motorcycle parking and providing new paving, seating and landscaping. The design celebrates the mature tree at the centre of the space.  

Bunhill Row cycling

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £105,904

Improvements to the pedestrian and cycling environment to increase safety, especially around the Banner Street and Featherstone Street junction.

Ironmonger Row access improvements

Contributions from:

• Community Infrastructure Levy admin: £250,000

This funded accessibility improvements on Ironmonger Row.

Owen Street Streetscape Improvements

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £63,376

This funded adoption of a privately owned carriageway next to a stretch of footway, a public highway. The adoption moved the cycle path to the carriageway and for pedestrians to use the current footway to reduce conflicts.

Bunhill Row cycling

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £105,904

Improvements to the pedestrian and cycling environment to increase safety, in particular around the Banner Street and Featherstone Street junction.

Cycle route improvements - Finsbury Square to Bunhill Row

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £310,235

The funding made improvements to the cycling and pedestrian environment to increase safety and usage. The project made a ‘quietway’ cycle link between ‘Cycle Superhigway 1’ at Wilson Street and ‘Quietway 11’ at Bunhill Row. It also funded a cycle track on the south side of Finsbury Square, with junction improvements at Chiswell Street and Finsbury Square. It also funded minor alterations to improve cycle safety at the junction of Bunhill Row and Chiswell Street.

Old Street Gyratory removal

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £516,711

A partnership project between Islington, Hackney and the Mayor of London, with Transport for London funding most of the project.

The work closed the north-western arm of the roundabout, creating a new public space. It was meant to improve pedestrian and cycle safety by re-routing traffic into a two-way road system around the remaining arms.

Baldwin Street and Peerless Street

Contributions from:

• Section 106: £150,925

This involved resurfacing the carriageways and widening of the footways of Baldwin Street and Peerless Street. It created a junction between the proposed landscaped walk as part of the development, Baldwin Street, and its extension into Peerless Street.

Moreland Street and Pickard Street improvements

Contributions from:

• Local Community Infrastructure Levy: £49,140
• Section 106: £286,859

The funding narrowed the carriageway and introduced coloured asphalt to reduce vehicle speed and make drivers aware they are entering an area with children. It also installed new planters, seating and electric charging bays. The project won a ModeShift Award in November 2019 in the ‘Excellence in the walking’ category and was shortlisted for a London Transport Award in March 2020.