Elm Park Shopping Parade

The Elm Park shopping parade is a special place in the Tulse Hill community that holds the promise of becoming a vibrant neighbourhood hub benefiting residents and local businesses.

Planned changes aim to encourage more walking, wheeling and cycling while boosting the local economy and making Tulse Hill more resilient to climate changes. The improvements support Lambeth Council’s Kerbside Strategy, which intends to dedicate a quarter of road space to sustainable uses by 2030, aligning with our Climate Action Plan.

By reducing traffic, improving sidewalks, removing street clutter, and adding more trees and bio-diverse planting, the Elm Park shopping parade will become an accessible, friendly and safe place to shop and stroll, making it a welcoming and sought-after local destination.

The Elm Park shopping parade design transforms the area into a community and active travel friendly space by providing wider pavements, street trees, seating, and greening. As part of this transformation, some parking bays must be removed. These changes support the Council’s Climate Action Plan and Kerbside Strategy aim of reinstating the kerbside as public space with a target for 25% of kerbside allocated for sustainable uses by 2030.

As part of the decision-making process for the designs, we conducted a parking occupancy survey. This survey showed that the impact on residents would be minimal.

Residents will now find parking along neighbouring streets and can make use of the loading bay for any drop offs and deliveries during the loading bay hours.

Visitors to the area will be able to park on neighbouring streets outside the hours of the resident parking permit (Monday to Friday, hours vary depending on the street), or can use the pay for parking option where applicable.

When designing the scheme, a parking occupancy survey was undertaken. This highlighted that the existing disabled bays were not used by residents.

Visitors who own a blue badge are permitted to park in vacant residents' bays within the area for an unlimited time. The closet areas to the Elm Park Shopping Parade can be found on Leander Road and Ostade Road.

There are currently four bike parking locations along the Elm Park Shopping Parade which can be used when visiting the local shops. The design expands on these by providing additional bike parking on the side of the road opposite to the shops.

Lambeth Council is committed to transforming our streets to change the way people perceive their everyday journeys. Lambeth’s top two priorities are enabling accessible and active travel and creating spaces for people. Street seating creates space for socialising, for speaking to our neighbours as well as a place to take a much a needed moment to sit down and relax.

We understand that public seating causes concern for anti-social behaviour. Our previous schemes where public seating was introduced did not show any increase in anti-social behaviour due to the seating. Officers will continue to work with local residents, community groups and businesses and monitor any emerging issues that may arise as a result of antisocial activities associated with the new street furniture. We are actively working with colleagues across Lambeth Council to prevent and, if necessary, react quickly to instances of anti-social behaviour and wider safety concerns.

Through our engagement we found there was a strong local desire to see the businesses on Elm Park thrive and survive. There were 66 comments noting the specific measure of providing seating outside the café and pub. We have responded to this feedback by designing space for seating outside the Elm Park Tavern on both Elm Park and on Ostade Road.  This space is depicted on the diagram of the scheme, showing the location occupied by picnic tables.  This is indicative only and the space will be clear outside of pub operating hours. 

We are working in partnership with the Elm Park Tavern to ensure that this space is used responsibly and respectfully by their patrons. Officers will continue to work with local residents, community groups and businesses and monitor any emerging issues that may arise as a result of anti-social activities associated with the additional seating.

Northbound journeys from Elm Court School have changed. We have determined two routes for SEN transport heading northbound from Elm Court School as follows:

1. Turning left on Craster Road, left again on Ostade Road then continuing the journey to the A23 by turning right onto Upper Tulse Hill.

2. Turning right onto Craster Road, left onto Medora Road, then left again onto Leander Road, followed by a right on Elm Park to continue your journey northbound to the A23.

As northbound motor vehicle traffic will now be prohibited along the Elm Park shopping parade, Medora Road, Craster Road and Ostade Road will provide natural routes back to the A23. As the Tulse Hill LTN measures have already lessened the traffic through the neighbourhood and local residents have several route options for travelling northbound, we do not anticipate any of these roads having a significant increase in traffic, though residents of these streets might notice delivery vehicles supporting local shops and schools leaving the area via their road.

As northbound motor vehicle traffic will now be prohibited along the Elm Park shopping parade, you will need to use alternate routes.

If you are starting your northbound journey on Ostade Road, depending on where you are headed you can either use Craignair Road to Road the A204, or you can turn left onto Craster Road, Medora Road and Leander Road to rejoin Elm Park to continue your journey northbound to the A23.

Residents and businesses along Elm Park Parade can make use of the loading bay for any drop offs and deliveries during the loading bay hours. As a result of the one-way change on Elm Park Shopping Parade, delivery vehicles servicing the shops and nearby school may use Medora Road and Craster Road to leave the area. However, we foresee the impact of this on residents will be minimal.

During our engagement we learned that residents felt the wheelie bins were an eye sore and made it difficult to walk along the pavement.  We have addressed this by providing wheelie bin bays for residents on the side of the street opposite to the shops.  Each bay has the capacity for multiple wheelie bin. 

We have heard from residents that litter is an issue along the Elm Park Shopping Parade and there are concerns that those living above the shops do not have access to council wheelie bins and must leave their rubbish on the street overnight. We are looking at ways to support these residents further and reduce litter in the area.