Chetwoods Well-line is one of four winners of the Royal Academy of Arts ‘Urban Jigsaw’ ideas competition to create a scheme that taps the potential of London’s underused land whilst giving back to the city. Our proposal is for the re-use of one of London’s hidden pieces of infrastructure: the underground Postal Railway.
London’s roads are becoming increasingly clogged with vans and lorries. As air quality deteriorates, it is becoming more important to develop new, more efficient ways of distributing parcels, goods and products across the city.
Chetwoods argue that a key part of the infrastructure to enable this already exists in the mothballed six-mile underground ‘Post Office Railway’ – the capital’s longest brownfield site. Our proposal would see this redundant railway become the Well-line – a new delivery line carrying parcels to destinations across central London. From Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east, the Well-line would take traffic off the road, reducing congestion and pollution, while opening up new spaces for a ribbon of parks across the city centre. In addition to these environmental benefits, the Well-line would bring significant economic opportunities for the business or community enterprises located along its length.
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