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Ever been fazed in the maze at Hampton Court, jammed in the
gyratory at Hangar Lane or baffled in the Barbican? You may have felt lost without a
compass but those are relatively simple tests of human ingenuity compared with some of the
proposals for a new traffic system for the Stoke Newington High Street and Church Street
areas.
There is no doubt that traffic, noise and high levels of pollution are a severe problem in
the streets of Stoke Newington. Consultants carried out a survey of the traffic flows and
revealed that during the peak evening time between 5001,000 vehicles an hour use Church
Street, Albion Road, Lordship Road and Manor Road. More than double that number pass
through Stanford Hill on the stretch between Manor Road and the junction just north of
Church Street. Bouverie Road, Defoe Road, Grayling Road and Kynaston Road have 100-500
vehicles an hour.
Hackney Council has published the consultants' report making proposals aimed at 'improving
the environment and conditions for buses, pedestrians and cyclists' in those two streets
and in the residential areas west of the one-way system. The Council insists that these
ideas are not a foregone conclusion but are merely suggestions for
consultation.
Three schemes are proposed:
 Stoke Newington High Street: provision of two-way working
primarily for buses with limited access for general traffic. Improvements for pedestrians
and cyclists. The conversion of Evering Road, Rectory Road and Northwold Road to two-way
operation;
Stoke Newington Church Street: restriction of access to buses,
pedestrians and cyclists in combination with the High Street scheme;
Lordship Road: closure of the street at its junction with Church Street.
This could be implemented independently.
Around Church Street the two main features of the schemes apart from the closure of the
Lordship Road junction - are the bus-only turn at the High Street/ Church Street junction
(into and out of both streets) and the complicated nature of the proposed traffic flow in
the streets off Church Street. This involves:
Bouverie Road to be one-way north from Church Street to Grayling Road (turn left) and
one-way south from Manor Road to Grayling Road (turn right).
Grayling Road to be one-way west.
Yoakley Road to be one-way south.
Defoe Road to be one-way south.
Ayrsome Road to be one-way north.
An example: a car travelling from the High Street to the lower part of Bouverie Road would
currently turn left into Church Street and right into Bouverie Road. Under the new
proposals the route would be: up Stamford Hill, left into Manor Road, left into Bouverie
(upper part), right into Grayling, left into Yoakley, left into Church Street, left into
Bouverie (lower part). Phew!
The effect of the Church Street Scheme would be to direct more traffic onto Manor Road and
Green Lanes. In order to assist motorists who normally cut through to the A10 (going
north) from Green Lanes or Albion Road by using Church Street or Lordship Park/Manor Road,
it is proposed that the right turn from Green Lanes to Seven Sisters Road at Manor House
be reinstated. |
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