Rabbit Warren Street

Challenges

Visitors to Fitzrovia often arrive through Warren Street tube station and head straight down Tottenham Court Road, never turning right into the independent shops, restaurants and businesses the neighbourhood has to offer.

The arrival experience gave them little reason to.

Cluttered street furniture, blank frontages, poor signage, nothing green and nowhere to sit.

The London Festival of Architecture and The Fitzrovia Partnership ran an open design competition to change that, and to draw people into the area during the festival month.

Solution

Able Partners won the competition with 'Rabbit Warren Street', developed with Elliott Wood. Much like a rabbit warren, Fitzrovia is invisible to those who don't know about it and a rich network to those who do.

The installation worked at three scales, catching people driving past on Euston Road, emerging from the tube, and arriving on foot. A large sculpture of a rabbit disappearing down a hole stopped traffic on one of London's busiest roads. At street level, the pavement and blank frontages were wrapped in a meadow print, unifying an otherwise cluttered space, with planters placed on top of electrical boxes and carrot-wrapped bike docks marking the route. Painted and vinyl wayfinding led people away from the station and into the neighbourhood.

At the centre was a hand-drawn map of Fitzrovia's 'warren', featuring the local characters, businesses and places that make the area what it is. Businesses were invited to take part, and a month-long programme of 'Hop On, Hop Off' walks was hosted by residents sharing their experience of living and working there.

Sustainability shaped the delivery. Murals used pollution-absorbing paint, planters were built from upcycled timber and redistributed to residents afterwards, and the sculpture was sustainably sourced and fully recyclable.