The DIY Streets team had a busy time during the Ouseburn Festival on 5th and 6th July 2014. People from Ouseburn Futures, xsite architecture, Sustrans, Roots and Wings, and Newcastle City Council – + 3 volunteers from Gentoo – worked together on Saturday to create a temporary transformation to test out the ideas on redesigning parts of Stepney Road, Stepney Bank and Lime Street.
Thank you very much to everyone who helped to create the trial designs, and to everyone who talked to us and gave their feedback over the weekend. It was really helpful and will help us in designing better streets. It was also great fun to do something that big and bold that made people look and think!
First, the road signs and cones were put out. These are on Stepney Road.
The street had to be measured to make sure that the cones were in the correct place and that the remaining vehicle access was wide enough.
A temporary priority system for vehicles was set up on Stepney Rd.
A temporary priority system for vehicles was set up on Stepney Rd.
Measuring the width of the street where the temporary narrowing was to be placed.
The trees were growing low over the path, making it difficult to walk on the pavement, so some branches needed pruning.
Two of the Ouseburn DIY Streets team, Paul and Cath, demonstrate that it’s now possible to walk along the pavement.
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- The ground was brushed thoroughly before leaves were stencilled onto the pavement leading to the footpath through the wood.
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- The ground was brushed thoroughly before leaves were stencilled onto the pavement leading to the footpath through the wood.
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- Several colours were used on the Stepney Road stencilled pattern.
Temporary reshaping of the Stepney Road junction onto Stepney Bank.
Temporary reshaping of Stepney Bank at the junction with Stepney Road.
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- The street painting equipment.
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- Mixing the green paint to be painted onto Lime Street.
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- The design for the design by the Village Green area nearest Ouseburn Farm.
Preparing to paint Lime Street.
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- Painting the street – where Stepney Bank becomes Lime Street.
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- Painting the street – we recommend long-handled rollers – it’s harder work with short ones.
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- The temporary painting of the street marked an area where we think it would be helpful to raise the street level.
Someone put their handprints onto the pavement on Stepney Road.
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- Pig stencil on Lime Street – one of several stencils from Ouseburn Community project.
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- Duck stencil on Lime Street – one of several stencils from Ouseburn Community project.
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- Horse stencil on Lime Street – one of several stencils from Ouseburn Community project.
We put up the Sustrans pagoda on Lime St, with hay bales for people to sit on and a temporary bike stand next to us.
Nita from site architecture did a display about the proposals with feedback space.
People could put coloured dots on a scale of whether they really disliked or really liked the proposals for the junctions.
This painted section with red unicorn by Seven Stories and 36 Lime Street Gallery is an area we think should be raised.
