Street Furniture

Quality & life cycle expectations

Throughout Ebbsfleet the street furniture should be high quality, contemporary, and robust in design. Precedent images of locally available products have been provided on the following pages to support this table.

Street furniture should utilise a limited palette of quality materials to establish consistency across the Garden City. Careful, consideration must be given to the suitability of the material, with respect to its resistance to vandalism, potential damage, ease of repair and the maintenance requirements outlined at the end of this chapter.

The range of street furniture may be varied by the introduction of custom elements such as bespoke seating or specialised furniture elements (e.g. timber benches attached to planters) within specific public spaces. These should be integrated into the design of the space and should be used to create a unique identity for the space.

Design principles & rules of thumb

The table on the right provides general rules of thumb for the various types of street furniture expected to be used within the public realm. The table is provided in support of the Healthy Streets Evaluation Framework indicators outlined in Section 3 and the design guidance in Section 4. Collectively, this document aims to achieve the following design principles for the use of street furniture within the public realm of the garden city.

Street furniture should be selected at village or local neighbourhood level except for continuous public spaces linking across multiple neighbourhoods (e.g. level 1 streets). This functions to help balance a desire for consistency in the public realm with the desire to create distinctive, identifiable neighbourhoods.
Public spaces that connect across neighbourhoods should be designed using a consistent palette of street furniture.
Street furniture should be incorporated with the ambitions outlined in the evaluation framework.
Street furniture should be appropriately placed to maximise usability and avoid creating visual clutter.
Unsightly items, such as control boxes, should be located underground with a pop up mechanism or discretely placed. Casings for control boxes should be chosen to coordinate with the street furniture range.

Street Furniture: Chalk quarries & Ebbsfleet Valley

The street furniture in the Chalk Quarries and Ebbsfleet Valley character areas should be simple, contemporary in style, elegant and robust in design and support inclusive design - e.g. seating with back rests and armrests should always be the standard and predominant typology.

The street furniture should utilise a limited palette of quality materials.
Primary materials should be timber (for seating) and metal (for seating structural supports, cycle stands, litter bins and bollards).
Metal elements should be neutral colours that align with the provided colour palette for the Chalk Quarries and Ebbsfleet Valley.
Street furniture should be integrated into the public space typologies in line with the design guidance outlined in chapter 4.
Street furniture should be oriented toward prominent views of the local lakes, rivers and chalk cliffs.