Improvements outside Christ the King Primary School

This project has now been implemented. You can find information on the project below. 

Improvements to Tollington Park at Christ the King Primary School

As part of our commitment to make Islington’s streets greener, healthier, and more welcoming for all, we held a public consultation to deliver improvements outside Christ the King, on Tollington Park in February 2024. 

We proposed a number of changes to create a more pleasant atmosphere outside the school gate, where road danger is reduced, and where it’s easier for children, parents, and carers to walk, cycle, and wheel to and from school.  This included raising the existing signalised crossing, widening the pavement, new cycle parking and seating, greening, and new colourful carriageway artwork. We also proposed moving a cycle hangar from Tollington Park to Turle Road.

We first engaged with local people, businesses and the school community in December 2023 where we asked people to identify the current issues with the street environment outside Christ the King. Using this feedback, we developed designs for Tollington Park and held a public consultation from Monday, 19 February to Sunday, 17 March 2024. 

We received 13 responses to the online survey. We also delivered a workshop with selected pupils from the school. You can find the detailed results in the consultation report. 

The feedback from the consultation demonstrates that the public generally supports the aims of the improvements proposed outside the school. 

How we tansformed Tollington Park 

Following the public consultation, and a further statutory consultation (held 17 May to 7 June 2024), we finalised designs for the project. We carried out works to implemented the improvements on a permanent basis in Summer 2024, completing works in September 2024. 

We introduced the following improvements outside Christ the King Primary School: 

Figure 1: Examples of improvements. 

In response to concerns fed back during the public consultation we made changes to the designs which included:

• reducing the proposed removal of parking spaces required to accommodate building out the pavement from from 10 spaces to 7 spaces
• local people told us that they were concerned about speeding in the area and on Tollington Park. We monitored speeds on Tollington Park which showed that the seven-day average speed is under the 20mph limit. However, we are committed to further supporting speed reduction on Tollington Park and we included speed reduction measures within the design such as widening the raised crossing, and reducing parking loss to create 'pinch points' at the entrance to the school zone which will encourage vehicles to lower their speed. 

The final part of the project includes introducing colourful artwork on the road outside the school to make drivers aware of the school and encourage them to slow their speeds. This is due to be completed in Summer 2025. 

Figure 2: artistic impression of improvements to Tollington Park

About Islington’s School Streets  

Since 2019, Islington Council has introduced 34 School Streets, covering 35 primary schools. These work by preventing vehicles from using streets outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times, making the school run more enjoyable, and creating a better atmosphere.