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LONDON DNA With past residents such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Charles Dickens and the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Marylebone has attracted a rich pool of musicians, artists, writers and socialites for centuries. But it is in recent years that Marylebone has really started to come into its prime, with exciting developments on the horizon. The name Marylebone, originally pronounced “Mary-Le-Bone”, originated from a medieval church, St Mary-by-the-Tyburn – the Tyburn being a stream that once ran from Hampstead through Marylebone and St James’s Park to the Thames. First referenced in the Doomsday Book in 1086, Tyburn became synonymous with public executions in the 12th century – and for the next 600 years. For much of its history, the area has been touched by an association with its more nefarious past. However, one of its biggest landowners, the Portman Estate, has since played a leading role in transforming Marylebone into an oasis of tranquillity away from the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street. The Portman Estate’s origins lie in 270 acres of farmland leased by Sir William Portman in 1532, later acquiring the freehold. The land remained in agricultural use up until the 1760s when the first building leases were issued on the Estate, but it was in the 1880s that development really transformed the area, and the Portman Estate is now the largest landowner in the area with 110 acres. Keen to ensure that Marylebone’s character is protected, the Estate is reinvesting £320M over the next 10 years. Part of this entails developing visionary public realm initiatives in partnership with other stakeholders (such as Baker Street Quarter Partnership and Marble Arch London) that will greatly benefit the neighbourhood and environment. Several mixed-use schemes are also being developed on the Estate over the next 2-3 years including 1 Great Cumberland Place (The Portman Estate), Marble Arch Place (Almacantar) and Regent House (Native Land) – all three of which C&W are advising on. Marylebone: ABustling and Carefully Curated Village in the Heart of London Executions and Investment B ounded by Oxford Street to the south, Marylebone Road to the north, Edgware Road to the west and Great Portland Street to the east, it is an extremely well connected and accessible neighbourhood which will be further enhanced with the arrival of the Elizabeth Line at Bond Street and Paddington in 2019. Today, Marylebone is widely regarded as one of London’s hottest destinations, with an eclectic mix of restaurants, independent stores, boutique hotels, Georgian terraces and commercial developments. The land remained in agricultural use up until the 1760s when the first building leases were issued on the Estate, but it was in the 1880s that development really transformed the area In a world where well planned infrastructure is increasingly intertwined with the success of global cities, we take a look at the schemes that didn’t make it onto the map and global innovations that may give London some cause for thought. Infrastructure Innovations Running Out of Steam: Five infrastructure proposals that never were 1. The Garden Bridge Loved by luvvies and championed by then Mayor Boris Johnson, the bucolic bridge was eventually scrapped in 2017 by Johnson’s successor Sadiq Khan. The project was characterised by some as driven by patronage and politics rather than the necessary (albeit less glamorous) processes of planning and procurement. 2. The Thames Estuary Airport Not so much a single plan, but a series of proposals for a London airport located at various points along the Thames Estuary. The latest (and dare one say it, final) iteration – referred to as Boris Island – was rejected by the Airports Commission in 2014. In 2018, MPs voted for expansion at Heathrow – perhaps the final nail in the coffin for the Thames Estuary Airport. 3. The King’s Cross Aerodrome In perhaps one of the earliest and most ambitious attempts at inter-modal connectivity, architect Charles Glover proposed a four-runway airport over the sidings at King’s Cross station in 1931. 4. The Regent Street Monorail Congestion around Piccadilly, Regent Street and Oxford Street is not a new problem. Back in 1967, a suspended monorail was proposed to reduce the number of buses – deemed to be “obsolete for the needs of inner London” by the scheme’s architect Brian Waters. 5. The Cross River Tram It sounds old-fashioned, but the Cross River Tram was actually a relatively recent proposition. Ken Livingston instructed TfL to develop the network in his first term as Mayor of London. It was the first scheme to be cancelled by Boris Johnson when he took over as Mayor of London in 2008. Global Transport Trends Bus Rapid Transit Essentially a tube that runs above ground, BRT allows cities to combine the cost-effectiveness of buses with the efficiency of a metro system, all without having to dig up the roads. The system is particularly popular in cities with high levels of congestion and limited metro services – including a number of South American cities – and it puts an emphasis on making public transport desirable, rather than the last resort. Microtransit goes big From scooters to dockless and electric bikes, commuters in some cities are now spoilt for choice when it comes to on-demand options for short trips. While seen as quintessentially Silicon Valley, scooter-sharing start-ups have expanded across the US at a rapid rate. Tech unicorn- on-wheels, Bird is now being rolled out across Europe, including a pilot at Here East in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. And dockless bike-share service Mobike now operates in 200 cities, having launched in Shanghai in April 2016. Spinning plates In a bid to reduce congestion, the city of Shanghai has for many years run an auction system for new car licence plates, with the average plate now costing over £10,000. Cities such as Shenzhen operate a lottery system to achieve similar ends. And other cities such as Paris have used licence plates as a means of controlling traffic, by only allowing odd- or even-numbered plates to enter the city on certain days. Dynamic road pricing Back in 1975, Singapore was the first city to introduce any sort of congestion pricing. The city upgraded its scheme to an electronic pricing system in 1998, and more recent collaboration with IBM has allowed it to implement real time variables, taking into account past traffic conditions in order to predict future traffic flows. The system is currently being upgraded further with the aim of charging according to distance travelled. By Ed Nicholson, MRICS, Associate Director, Leasing, London Markets ed.nicholson @eur.cushwake.com By Kat Hanna, Associate Director, Urban Change kat.hanna @cushwake.com TRANSPORT: WHAT'S NEXT CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD 22 TRANSPORT: WHAT'S NEXT 23 LONDON DNA