Queens Crescent High Street and Market

Queens Crescent is a Good Growth funded project by the GLA; it’s market was famous since 1876, but has more recently been in decline. Residents and Traders were wary of the promises of regeneration. In collaboration, East and The Decorators listened to residents and traders, also recording a podcast with interviews in the local library. Proposals for the street are sensitive to the lived experience of residents: gates restricting vehicular access on market days, technically superfluous but symbolically protective, were retained and repaired. The temporary and moveable nature of furniture allow for testing in different locations; alternatives for planting maintenance have been drawn up. The motif of a crescent shape has become an integral design element as something that is robust, yet frivolous and joyful; it reappears in the chosen signage, furniture and paving.