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If you’re stepping out of Knightsbridge tube station and popping into Harrods, then it’s probably fair to say you’re treating yourself. Will you throw caution to the wind on the sixth floor and buy a gem-covered perfume bottle that costs more than a London house? Or will you pay a modest £80 for three Fukushima peaches in a luxury presentation box? Whatever you’re splashing out on, you probably don’t want to be dodging traffic on busy Hans Crescent, so the news that this street is getting a pedestrian makeover should come as a relief.
The thoroughfare runs down one side of Harrods, with Knightsbridge tube station on the other side, and also houses easy-on-the-eye spots including makeup shop Space NK and highly Instagrammable café EL&N. Now, it’s finally getting an Insta-worthy glow-up of its own. Andy Sturgeon Design, the practice that recently spruced up Sloane Street, has been commissioned by the Knightsbridge Estate and Harrods to reimagine it as a green, pleasant place to stroll and hang out.
Renderings show a pedestrianised street with mottled grey, sand, and pale peach-coloured paving to echo the surrounding buildings, and six new planters with integrated benches for shoppers to rest their weary feet. There’ll also be 80 sq m of planting, an updated lighting scheme designed to flatter the street’s historic façades, and space for temporary art installations to brighten things up.
Works are set to be completed this autumn – just in time for the Christmas shopping rush. They’re part of a wider move towards pedestrianising some of London’s busiest streets, with Camden High Street and Oxford Street also due for big car-free makeovers this year. It’s a trend that’ll make shopping trips way more pleasant: instead of dodging rickshaws and inhaling exhaust fumes, you can stroll arm in arm with your mates like you’re in a low-budget London remake of Sex and the City, on a leisurely quest for the perfect ’fit.
Anyone brave enough to still be attempting the drive through central London might be less thrilled, but no doubt Harrods’ wealthiest customers will have chauffeurs skilled enough to navigate this increasingly car-free city.
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