Client: Southampton City Council 

Public Arts Officer: Elizabeth Smith SCC

Highways Engineer: Graham Redman SCC 

Design Engineer: Simon Taylor SCC

Project Consultant Engineers: Halcrow

Specialist Fabricator and Collaborator: James Donington Decomo 

Main Contractor: Mott MacDonald + Aggregate Industries

Awards:  Editor’s choice category in the Local Government News 2011 Street Design Awards. 

Guildhall Square was completed in September 2010 after a £4.6m overhaul as part of council leaders’ vision for the city’s emerging cultural quarter. ‘Thousands of people turned out for free entertainment events including Midsummer Dreams, the Alive & Ablaze fire garden, the Southampton Passion play, and the royal wedding street party. No Fit State Circus brought its Barricade show to the square, transforming it into a spectacular aerial playground with circus imagery, breath-taking aerial and acrobatic skills, amazing pyrotechnics, and inspiring live music.’

Southampton’s Guildhall was always proposed as the centrepiece of the Civic Centre Complex, with its high portico & pediment and impressive Ionic Colonnade.  The full and dramatic effect of its entrance portal has never successfully been addressed in subsequent town planning and architecture. Guildhall Square, onto which the Guildhall opens had failed to establish itself as a viable civic space of any note, sited as it was in a gap in the buildings of Above Bar, created by WW2 Bomb damage.

However, the history of the site prior to building the Civic Centre has imbued the ground it stands upon with an important legacy & resonance. It has substantial links to the community and the population at large. West Marlands was common land. These were common grazing fields, known as Lammas Lands. 

Originally the site of a Leper Hospital dedicated to St Mary Magdalene & subsequently referred to as Le Maudeleyne, Maudlin Fields or the Garston’s, West Marlands was associated with a history of public use, common ground, ‘fit for spectacle and performance’, spontaneous gatherings, entertainment, and excitement. 

Southampton City Council leader Cllr Royston Smith said: “Guildhall Square has given residents a lot of pleasure and attracted significant further investment to Southampton. I am very pleased and proud people are recognising our public realm and that Local Government News’ editor selected us as winners out of all the street designs submitted around the country.”

Street Design Awards is a national competition that has been running for more than 20 years. It aims to recognise best practice and reward innovation in street design. About 150 entries were received and judged by an independent panel of experts.

Laura Sharman, editor of Local Government News, said: “I am delighted to announce that the Guildhall Square has been chosen as the editor’s choice winner of our 2011 Street Design Awards.’

“The scheme was chosen as it has all the elements of a successful public realm project. It provides a pedestrian friendly environment creates a sense of place and destination and will drive forward further regeneration of the area.”