New life in Leamington
Image above courtesy of LDA Design
‘Life in Leamington’ is a ten-year vision for Royal Leamington Spa, aiming to reinvigorate the town centre and make it healthier, livelier and more climate resilient.
The vision has been informed by extensive engagement with the community, including teenagers, and local businesses. This engagement showed support of up to 83% for the vision and its three pillars: Healthy People, Healthy Place and Healthy Planet. It has been prepared on behalf of Warwick District Council, Warwickshire County Council and Royal Leamington Spa Town Council.
Bernie Foulkes, a director at LDA Design, has been leading this work: “Royal Leamington Spa reached its peak as a destination and a place to live in the first half of the 19th century, thanks to its healing spa waters. So, when we started this commission, we were interested to find out what a place like Leamington can tell us now about putting health centre stage, and how we might adapt town centres to contemporary challenges like climate breakdown, nature recovery and lifestyle changes.”
The vision draws on the town’s rich history, its historic Pump Rooms, and its remarkable Regency grid pattern of fine streets and grand buildings, largely intact thanks to the town proving adaptable over the centuries.
So, Leamington remains a durable model for the future, where a mix of uses such as town centre living, the town’s burgeoning creative and digital sector, and new health, leisure and entertainment can begin to colonise and re-purpose vacant buildings and shop units, supported by sensitively designed infill.
At the heart of the town is Parade, one of England’s finest town streets. Unfortunately, declining footfall, shop vacancies and constant through-traffic detract from its elegance and its appeal.
The vision seeks to reanimate Parade with new activities and uses, helping to make Leamington a destination again. Key is removing through traffic, with road space re-assigned for pedestrians and cyclists. LDA has been working with transport consultancy Norman Rourke Pryme to explore alternative routes for traffic and new routes for buses. There is potential for a new civic square to replace a busy road junction in front of Leamington’s Victorian town hall.
There are plans for tree-planting along Parade’s length, with places to sit and socialise. Water can once again bring the modern spa back to life in the form of raingardens, fountains and mirror pools, the sound of water replacing traffic noise.
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