Chalk Farm Railway Lands (CFRL) suffer from major constraints to movement: first the barriers created by the main line to Euston and the North London Railway (NLR); and second the large differences in ground levels along Chalk Farm Road and the Regent’s Canal towpath compared with those prevailing over much of the Morrisons supermarket site and adjoining areas.
The current reconfiguring of the Chalk Farm Railway Lands offers a unique opportunity to create new routes through the area that serve the wider community. Such routes can introduce the public to the area’s history and foster a civic pride to counter the growing urban intensification. Stephenson Walk presents a concept that meets a broad set of aims: urban connectivity, community, inclusivity, heritage, and environment.
Stephenson Walk uses the redevelopment opportunity to celebrate one of our greatest engineers. Robert Stephenson was intimately involved with the area for a decade and will have walked the route many times while planning the London & Birmingham Railway and supervising its construction. This tricky stretch of line, which included Primrose Hill Tunnel and its approach cutting, had bankrupted the appointed contractor. Stephenson took personal responsibility for its supervision.
The Walk, which extends from Oval Road and the Regent’s Canal towpath to Regent’s Park Road bridge, will strengthen links either side of the rail tracks, between communities in Camden and Primrose Hill, as well as providing access to the heritage facilities along the Walk, notably the Winding Engine Vaults. The Walk will provide car-free through routes for pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users.
The Walk will provide access to the Winding Vaults and stimulate their restoration and opening to the public, including a Visitor Centre at the entrance to the vaults and ticket office/ refreshments on a safeguarded site at the end of Winding Vaults Way.
The southern entrance to the Walk from the Regent’s Canal towpath would feature a concourse at towpath level and offers an opportunity for an exceptional café/restaurant overlooking the canal, provisionally named after Viscount St Davids, founder of the Pirate Club which the café would overlook. A waterbus stop would provide another means of access to the Walk and to the Winding Vaults.
Access from Oval Road would be stimulated by a ramp or stairs up from the Regent’s Canal towpath at Southampton Bridge, exiting through the LMS portal. This archaeological curiosity is the vestige of what was, 50 years ago, an external staircase (see photo) to the former railway offices, occupied in the 1990s by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop of Muppet fame.
At the Primrose Hill end of the walk, there would be a ramp up to Regent’s Park Road, running around the former station and exiting onto the bridge. Structural work will ensure compatibility with a future reopening of Primrose Hill station and restoration of the station building.
On the Camden side, Stephenson Walk will link with two new streets: Winding Vaults Way in the Morrisons redevelopment and a street in the redeveloped Gilbey’s Yard. It will also link with Middle Cross, the name proposed for the underpass of the North London Railway running from Chalk Farm Road to Morrisons.
“Middle Cross” is a name with strong historic relevance, having been given by the railway company to the line of turntables and capstans that the modern road closely follows. The photo from the 1930s, looking north-east towards Chalk Farm Road, shows staff lined up for inspection along Middle Cross with the goods sidings running from left to right towards the main goods shed.
The roadway and its pavements could be given further historical relevance by some street furniture that recalls the capstans that lined Middle Cross.
On the Primrose Hill side, the Walk could link with Pacific Village, a future redevelopment of the area now used for train washing and for carriage sidings. There would be a bridge over the mainline railway and streets leading to the bridge from Dumpton Place.
On the rail side, the Walk would be lined by railings between pillars that capture the appearance of those that originally lined the Camden Incline. On the other side there is space for trees or other planting, and benches for seating, to separate the Walk from office and residential areas.
It would be separated from the railway by a security fence, disguised by climbers planted between the security fence and the railings.
Stephenson Walk needs a statue of Robert Stephenson. The ideal position for this would be at the intersection of the Walk with Winding Vaults Way, where he can gaze at the railway he created across the entrance to the Winding Vaults.
The Grade II listed statue currently on the forecourt of Euston station should be considered a candidate. Robert Stephenson is shown on a red granite pedestal with inscription recording his dates of birth and death. He is in contemporary dress, holding partly unfurled plans.
We have learned recently how statues lose their purpose without historical context. There will be no historical context for Stephenson in the new Euston station to be built for HS2. Over its 150-year life the statue has already been relocated twice in response to development pressures and it will have to move again before the station is redeveloped for HS2.
In the longer term, it is hoped that Stephenson Walk can be extended from Regent’s Park Road bridge to the Primrose Hill Tunnel east portals, which are Grade II* listed. This will be more challenging to realise. As well as admiring the classic portals, walkers would observe one of the most complex layouts in the entire railway system, with its burrowing junctions, while enjoying the greenery of Adelaide Nature Reserve.
