As part of The Island Quarter’s commitment to echo and represent the communities that will enjoy it in the future, the design team is holding a series of engagement sessions to gather ideas, opinions and insights that will inform its work going forward.

Led by John Morgan of masterplanner Leonard Design Architects and David Jones of planning consultant Axis PED, the sessions touch on a broad range of topics and issues and feed into The Island Quarter’s wider development strategy.

In the fourth of our #TIQandYOU series, we touch on the engagement sessions covering transport to and around the site, as well as accessibility for all.

“Consider safe walking access routes to The Island Quarter from the city centre and surrounding areas.”  

“Commuting cyclists should be differentiated from social cyclists and pedestrians using the towpath.”  

“Don’t neglect car parking close to buildings for residents, employees and visitors with disabilities.” 

One of the most appealing aspects of The Island Quarter is its proximity to Nottingham’s main transport hub, with more than eight million passengers coming through the rail network each year. Add into that the more than 18 million journeys that take place on the city’s excellent tram network, and it is clear that the ability to reach The Island Quarter on public transport is one of its key selling points.

However, while our development is proximate to the city centre – less than ten minutes walk from the Lace Market – accessing the site by foot, car and bicycle has historically been a challenge, and one we have been keen to address from the moment we started looking at our regeneration plans.

One area of Nottingham that has historically been under-utilised is its canal front. The Nottingham Beeston canal runs through the heart of the city before turning southwards at The Island Quarter and feeding into the River Trent just half a mile downstream. Despite this, the waterfront walkways along the tow paths have long been neglected and poorly lit, leading to people to decide to look at alternate routes.

Over the last four years, we have worked closely with the Canal & River Trust to help remedy these issues and make Nottingham’s canalfront feel more safe and accessible, helping elevate its usage and bring more people along the waterway.

For pedestrians and cyclists, we are also undertaking significant works on the London Road crossing, creating stronger and safer linkages between the city to the west and north and The Island Quarter itself.

In its previous undeveloped state, it’s fair to say that our site formed a pretty solid physical barrier that essentially cut areas of the city off from one another. Our latest masterplan for the site – released in May 2023 – has taken the lead from the idea that The Island Quarter should act as a link between areas of the city that had historically not had a particularly strong connections, bringing together the city centre to the north and west, Sneinton to the east and The Meadows and – further afield – West Bridgford to the south.

This truly is a regeneration project for all. We are designing of Nottingham, for Nottingham, and these engagement sessions have provided us with an incredible insight into how different stakeholders look at what we are putting together.

We hope that those who have been involved will see elements of their contributions in the latest masterplan, and we’re excited to take the next steps alongside Nottingham City Council and the Nottingham public.