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Sprucing up Silicon Roundabout (Old Street)

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wintonian

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I don't think it's effecting the station itself (or is it?) so doesn't really seem to be infrastructure related.

BBC said:
_64593245_roundabout2.jpg

Later this morning David Cameron and Boris Johnson will unveil plans to transform Silicon Roundabout - or rather Tech City as the government likes to call it.
A number of major international firms will be announcing new investments in the East London technology cluster , but the big news is about the roundabout itself.
The Old Street roundabout, the busy and undistinguished traffic intersection which is the focus for Tech City, is to be given a complete makeover.
What we're promised is what the Prime Minister will describe as "the largest civic space in Europe - a place for start-up companies and the local community to come together and become the next generation of entrepreneurs".
An excited Downing Street advisor tells me that this will become a focal point for the creative and technology types who inhabit the streets of Shoreditch and the fringes of the City.
"There'll be 3D printing labs, artists and designers will drop in," he explains. With the 3D printing revolution taking off, he paints a picture of a new age of digital manufacturing, starting in the London cluster but spreading out across the UK.
_64593865_oldstreet.jpg

The pictures of the plans certainly look a lot more attractive than what is there at the moment, and Tech City could do with a landmark venue - something for television reporters to use as a recognisable image, and a place to take visiting investors to prove that there's more to the area than a few web designers getting together over a latte.
But this does not come cheap - the government is investing £50m in the new building, and what is described as the "peninsularisation" of the area around the roundabout. There will be further contributions from Boris Johnson's budget and hopefully from the private sector.
If you were a start-up technology company in a cluster elsewhere in the UK - in Dundee or Guildford or Cambridge - you might ask why yet more money and attention was being focused on London.


Mind you, the other day I asked one of the leading lights of the Cambridge technology scene whether he was jealous of the spotlight shone on Tech City. He smiled, and said Cambridge didn't really need to worry as it had lots of real hi-tech firms started by scientists, rather than what he dismissively described as the "munchkins" starting businesses in east London.
Still, Downing Street believes that the decision by the Prime Minister two years ago to throw his weight behind the east London cluster is already paying off.
"Berlin, Paris - they've nothing like this," I am told. The government says there has been a huge increase in the number of start-up technology firms in East London since it got involved in promoting the area.
What we have not yet seen is whether any of them can grow into the world class companies that have emerged from some of Britain's other tech clusters.
BBC

The USA gets a entire valley while we get an whole roundabout - I always wondered about that. Maybe we should rename Old Street to Silicon Roundabout? :|
 
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Nick W

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A very disappointing scheme - sounds like nothing is being done to address the friendliness of the junction for pedestrians and cyclists, despite the fact that we've moved on from the era it was built in in terms of design.

The building looks very good in the mockup, but I suspect if it's actually built it'll look plain and boring like lots of other glassy buildings. In addition, it looks like it will fit very badly with architecture of the surrounding buildings!
 

wintonian

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I have to admit crossing the road is easier if you hop on a bus and feels somewhat quicker.

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2
 

Mojo

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I hope they do tidy up the station and the subways; despite the Old Street, Shoreditch and Hoxton areas supposedly being ''trendy;'' it's an absolute dump.
 

jon0844

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I worked next door to TechHub for years and Old Street roundabout really isn't sexy and a lot of the tech firms obviously aren't there either, but near(ish) by. It's a very weird place, especially in an evening when you have a bunch of young tech people going on one of their 'silicon drinkabouts' and mixing with other workers and local residents from the council estate!

Anything to do up the station is a good thing, but glass structures always seem to look so much nicer in 3D renders than in real life... especially when it gets dirty, which I am sure it will in the middle of a roundabout.
 

Nick W

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I imagine they'll have to dig up the station for foundations if they want to put anything on top of it. What they should really do is turn the junction into a more conventional and safer traffic light junction, and then use the reclaimed surrounding space for buildings or otherwise!
 

DaveNewcastle

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. . . . sounds like nothing is being done to address the friendliness of the junction for pedestrians and cyclists, . . . .
. . . . What they should really do is turn the junction into a more conventional and safer traffic light junction, . . . .
Speaking as one of the more sanguine urban cyclists on here, who is happy to pedal through most of Central London's busier junctions, this is one that I avoid.

And yes, the public realm is visually unappealling in the extreme - the area deserves better, sadly too much of the traditional building stock has gone, in contrast with much of Shoreditch which is interesting and enjoyable to admire because of its retained industrial and commercial buildings (including railway structures, of course!).

Even the park and Cemetry nearby are cut off and almost unknown, as a consequence of relentlessly uninspired urban planning over the last 50 years or so.
. . . . it's an absolute dump.
In terms of the value of real estate in EC1, I'll nominate this junction as our nation's Highest Value Dump.
 
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