Westminster City Council is looking for ambitious designers and architects to help improve the setting of one of London's iconic landmarks.

The Piazza outside Byzantine style Westminster Cathedral is set to be revamped and the council is calling on highly skilled landscape designers and architects who want to create a new public space to contact the council to register their interest.

The council is also looking for a new design for Wilcox Place located just off Victoria Street near to the Piazza.The company who best meet the design brief's criteria will be commissioned to design both spaces.

The council wants to see a new and exciting design for the Piazza which has had a colourful past as a market square, a prison, a bull baiting ring and a maze and is now one of Victoria's principal open spaces.

Cllr Steve Summers, Westminster City Council's Deputy Cabinet Member for the Built Environment, said: "The council has been a long standing advocate of the need to carry out significant changes at Victoria and the new designs for the Piazza will have a major impact on the hundreds of thousands of people who come here every day as well as our local residents.

"We all accept that Victoria is not currently fitting as part of a world class city but these new designs should help to play a huge part in the transformation of the area to ensure that this significant and beautiful place of worship is surrounded by a well designed setting.

"We want to ensure that the area is welcoming and relaxing place for people to visit and spend time especially in the run up to 2012 when it will need to fulfil its potential as a showcase for the country and ensure that it is fitting for a world class destination."

The planned improvements and designs are part of the council's Action Plan for the area around Westminster Cathedral, the spiritual home of the Roman Catholic Church in the UK, that include new paving and lighting improvements and the possibility of running events on the Piazza.

Canon Tuckwell from Westminster Cathedral said:“Westminster Cathedral is keen to work with Westminster City Council in their plans for renovating and improving the piazza area. Because this area acts as a forecourt to the Cathedral we hope that the plans will take into account its use as a semi sacred place and an area for peaceful reflection”.

The plans to improve the area are a result of the collaboration between Westminster City Council, local residents and businesses as well as other organisations such as Westminster Cathedral and homeless charity The Passage. Local residents, businesses and the cathedral will be invited to give their opinions on the shortlist of proposed designs.

The newly designed Piazza will provide a fitting space in front of the cathedral, which was designed by architect John Francis Bentley in 1894 after he was selected by the third Archbishop Herbert Vaughan to create a 'great religious building'.

This is a challenging brief as the chosen design will need to complement the unique architectural style of the cathedral which was built to ensure that the house of God 'reflects the highest aspirations of humanity, and raises the mind toward the glories of heaven'.

The cathedral site was originally known as Bulinga Fen and formed part of the marsh around Westminster. It was reclaimed by the Benedictine monks who were the builders and owners of Westminster Abbey, and subsequently used as a market and fairground. After the Reformation, the land was used in turn as a maze, a pleasure garden and as a ring for bull-baiting but it remained largely waste ground.

The hope is that the new designs should provide an exciting and inviting public open space and play a new role in the area's rich history.

Implementation of the new designs for the Piazza and Wilcox Place will make the Piazza fitting next to the proposed £1 billion regeneration plan for Victoria as part of the Victoria Transport Interchange scheme.

For further information on the design process for the two public open spaces and to register your interest, please contact Roger Austin, Programme Manager on 020 7641 7061 or raustin@westminster.gov.uk

The call for entries is open to international designers and architects.

Expressions of interest should be shown no later than Monday 1 February 2010.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:.

Other Victoria Improvements include the Victoria Transport Interchange Scheme

The scheme will see the much needed regeneration of Victoria by bringing in new offices and flats as well as a new library, without adversely impacting on Westminster's UNESCO World Heritage site, and should create an estimated 8,500 jobs in the area.

The development will comprise a mixture of office, retail and residential units, with the plans extending from Buckingham Palace Road in the west, to Bressenden Place in the north and Victoria Street, and will see 205 flats, 82 000 metres squared of offices and 13 000 metres squared of shops created in Victoria.

The scheme, covering six acres, is made of six buildings - the tallest of which will now be just 87m - a third shorter in size from original plans submitted in December 2007 which the council said would destroy the city's skyline and threaten Westminster's Unesco's World Heritage site.

The scheme will see Victoria, an international transport hub and a station of major strategic significance to the capital, improved after planning permission was granted in February 2009.

• Back to archive