The scheme revitalised Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, while projects to follow helped to demonstrate that bad things like terrorism can also mean funding for extra public realm is more readily available. 

While Parliament Square is still on the to-do list for a solution to its traffic problem, said Atkins, landmark projects that improved ‘exponentially’ as a result included Exhibition Road and a 2020 Vision for the Crown Estate Atkins produced, Covid-19 having caused a ‘rethinking’ about how much space is needed for pedestrians and vehicles. Statues and memorials in the public realm are a ‘very hot topic’ said Atkins, that had been long overlooked and which should be reappraised in terms of their diversity.

Publica founding director Lucy Musgrave – another public realm heavyweight – talked about the complexity of neighbourhoods and research that underpins her organisation’s work. Cities are incredibly surprising places, she said, but they are always in flux, too. In the midst of an environmental crisis cities are both a problem and a solution, Musgrave added, with public ream being a contributor to wellbeing, backed by key support from London mayor Sadiq Khan. ‘This is an opportunity to really rethink our cities and think about how we can think about meaning in place’, she said. 

Publica is working on School Streets in Hackney as part of a bid to make the capital more child-friendly and is about to launch evening and night time strategies for the boroughs and GLA ‘in the next few weeks’. It is also working with the first urban parish council in London, in Queen’s Park, and worked on widespread changes around Bond Street. ‘We didn’t change the traffic management’, she said of that scheme. ‘We just put the highway on a diet’.

But that World Squares for All masterplan competition had, said Musgrave, been prompted by a major public debate while she was at the Architecture Foundation at which the audience showed their demand for better public space to John Gummer by standing and slow-clapping rather than merely voting. The public’s ‘huge backlash’ against low traffic neighbourhoods and other elements could be tackled by showing using data, the opportunity being for smart cities to make that available. ‘I think it’s a more nuanced debate and it needs to be this transition that needs to be worked through’, she said. None of the projects could have happened, though, without consensus formed across organisations from Transport for London to the BIDs. ‘It’s a joined-up thing’

Atkins agreed, saying that communication is important in this going forward. But the unspoken thing is that schemes like World Squares for Al could not have happened without congestion charging coming in. Unfortunately, car usage has now risen again, partially because of people’s fears around travelling on public transport and a mode shift to walking and cycling but freight and deliveries was a topic that had to be faced up to too, Atkins added.