People hit by cars on famous road being confused with pavement

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

People are at risk of being mowed down on one of London’s most famous streets because many don’t realise they are walking on a road, it has been claimed.

Exhibition Road in South Kensington is home to the Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and Imperial College London as well as other visitor attractions.

It’s so busy that South Kensington Tube station can see more footfall than Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

But this intensely busy street is confusing some pedestrians, according to locals, because the footpath and carriageway look the same, with a pattern of differently coloured grey tiles flowing from the path into the road, with only a small drop from the kerb separating the two.

Missionaries at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints claim this is causing safety issues, and that people have been hit by vehicles right outside their church.

They also claim coaches are parking on the pavement and forcing pedestrians into the road.

Church elder, Don Stapley, said: “The situation isn’t ideal because sometimes the buses park right up front [of the Church] and stay put, which limits the foot traffic and makes it difficult to get in and around.”

Missionaries at the church, including Elder Stapley, claim to have witnessed people being hit while crossing the street, although Kensington and Chelsea council claims it has no records of pedestrians being hit and injured by traffic on the street directly outside the church since 2019.

Elder Stapley claims a woman was knocked to the ground by a taxi performing a U-turn “right in front of us” earlier this year while another missionary claims to have seen a school girl hit by a taxi. Both times ambulances were called out, they claim.

It is not the first time Exhibition Road has come under scrutiny for its layout. In February, Kensington and Chelsea councillor Emma Dent Coad claimed supercars sped down the road because its lack of high kerbs and unique grid patterns made it “look like a video game”.

According to crashmap.co.uk, which uses data from the Department for Transport about collisions that involved an injury, there were 40 incidents along Exhibition Road between 2017 and 2021 – the latest figures available on the site – with eight being deemed “serious”.

Another church elder, Alan Wakeley claimed he almost got “skittled” by traffic when he accidentally stepped onto Exhibition Road. The 71-year-old said: “I almost got skittled when I was standing out here talking to someone. I stood back and didn’t even realise I was on the road.”

A spokesperson for Kensington and Chelsea council said: “The current layout has been in place on Exhibition Road since 2011 and there were no reports of personal injury collisions involving pedestrians in the vicinity of the church between 2020 and 2022.

“We would encourage anyone involved in an accident to report it to the police, so the council is notified and we can continue to monitor the street.”

Pictured top: Exhibition Road in July, 2023, which businesses claim is confusing to navigate because the carriageway and the footpaths look the same (Picture: Adrian Zorzut)