We are working across London to provide ambitious improvements to the network of public spaces, from the doorstep to the street, parks and landscapes.

Victoria Embankment links the Cities of London and Westminster along the north bank of the Thames. It is one of London's great lost public spaces, dominated by traffic with poor pedestrian access. A partnership led by Design for London developed plans to reclaim this space for Londoners.

The vision for Victoria Embankment was to create a beautiful, south-facing, riverside promenade, which would connect this wonder of Victorian engineering back into Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square and across the new pedestrian bridges to the South Bank.

The Architecture + Urbanism Unit (now part of Design for London) and partners appointed MacCormac Jamieson Prichard (MJP) Architects to develop the vision in January 2005. MJP's work was supplemented by a landscape study by Wirtz International and a conservation assessment by Sarah Couch.

The plans proposed increasing the width of the riverside promenade, without affecting traffic overall capacity, and building more pedestrian crossings to connect the extended walkway to the isolated gardens along the Embankment.

A second row of trees would be planted in the reclaimed space of the carriageway and quieter noise surfacing would be used to create a more pleasurable environment. Other improvements included opening up the riverside terrace of Somerset House eastwards and improved lighting.

The total cost of the project was estimated to be £30 million. To date, this funding has not been identified and this project is currently not moving forward.