TfL wants to know what local people think of its plan for Wandsworth town centre, and is holding a drop-in event today from 3pm to 7pm. Wandsworth Council has already made its views known: the plan does not go far enough, it said in a budget paper, while also cutting £18m from its own plans for the town centre.
The consultation closes on Friday 6 November. The drop-in, TfL’s second, is at Brathway Hall in Southfields.
The plan covers Wandsworth High Street, East Hill and the one-way system around them. It would add three new pedestrian crossings. Two would go on the High Street, one between Garratt Lane and Fairfield Street and the other halfway between Putney Bridge Road and Wandsworth Plain. The third would cross Fairfield Street at its junction with Armoury Way.
Bus passengers would get wider waiting areas at the stops outside the King’s Arms and the Town Hall, and the bus lane would be extended to Buckhold Road. Some roadside bays near stops and in bus lanes would be removed, changed or moved to give buses priority. A loading bay on the High Street would go, with loading expected to move to Wandsworth Plain.
These are two of TfL’s 19 sheets. The full set is available as a PDF.
The plan is a smaller one than the scheme to remove the town centre’s notorious one-way system. TfL scrapped that scheme last year, saying construction costs were too high and journey times for buses and other traffic would be longer. TfL now says its proposals are meant to make buses more reliable and walking and cycling safer and easier around the one-way system.
TfL expects buses on routes 170 southbound, and 37 and 337 westbound, to run two to four minutes faster in the morning peak. It expects most car, van and motorbike journeys through the town centre to be around two to five minutes quicker in the morning peak. Northbound traffic from Battersea Rise towards Wandsworth Bridge would take two to three minutes longer in the morning. New bus lanes on Swandon Way would also stop south westbound traffic from turning right into the BP petrol station.
The council’s verdict is in a budget paper that Cabinet approved at its 12 October meeting. It takes £18m out of the money set aside for the Wandsworth Town Centre Transformation Scheme. It says TfL’s proposal “does not deliver the level of improvement that the Council considers to be necessary”.
The paper says revised lower cost proposals are being drawn up, but not what they are or how the cut fits with its criticism of TfL’s plan. It adds that the council will continue to make the case that investment in the scheme “will be dependent on the scheme meeting the Council’s ambitions”. The council’s programme still lists £6.3m for the scheme, around a third of the amount cut. Of that, £1.3m is committed this year and £5m sits in a pool for projects not yet ready to go ahead.
TfL’s consultation page does not mention the council’s view of the plan. Helen Cansick, TfL’s head of healthy streets investment, says the plan would make the town centre easier and safer for people on foot, on bikes and on buses. “We look forward to hearing from residents,” she said.
The station lifts are on schedule, the council says
Work on the lifts and a second entrance at Wandsworth Town station is on schedule to finish in summer 2027, Wandsworth Council says. Piling for the lift shafts is nearly finished, so the shafts themselves can start to go in. The published programme has the foundations finishing in November and the shafts going in during February 2027.
The £20m project, run by Network Rail, will put lifts on all four platforms. A second entrance with a ticket hall will open at Odyssey Way, on the north side of the station. The council’s share comes from developers’ money, not council tax. The station stays open throughout. Network Rail says the stairs to Platform 4 stay closed until the work finishes, with a two-minute walk along the platform to a temporary footbridge instead.
The council first announced the lifts and second entrance in June 2022, and work started in February this year. It also said in July that the work was on track. More than 3.75 million people used the station between April 2024 and March 2025, the council says, making it the 15th busiest on the South Western Railway network.
Cllr Nick Austin, the Cabinet Member for Transport, said it is “great to see real progress being made at our rail stations”. The council says the lifts and the new entrance will open together.
How to have your say
TfL’s consultation closes on Friday 6 November. The survey, maps and detailed proposals are at haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/wandsworth-improvements. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes, and there is a quick response option for people short of time.
TfL’s second drop-in is today, Tuesday 27 October, from 3pm to 7pm at Brathway Hall, Brathway Road, SW18 4BE.
You can also put a question to TfL through its online question tool or its call-back service on 020 3054 6037. Written replies go to FREEPOST TfL HAVE YOUR SAY; the survey can be downloaded and printed.
When the consultation ends, TfL will publish a report and decide whether to go ahead with the plan, change it or drop it.
Thanks for this helpful summary. The Wandsworth Town Property Partnership recently commissioned a report on this knotty challenge, and it’s encouraging to see so much shared ambition for the town centre.
Since the gyratory removal scheme was shelved, the Council and TfL have been working together on phased improvements (crossings, wider footways, bus lanes, lighting and greening), shaped by extensive public engagement in 2025. TfL’s current proposals for the High Street, East Hill and the gyratory are an important part of that.
Our report, the Common Plan, builds on this work. It sets out a practical, phased programme to make the town centre safer, easier to walk and cycle through, and busier, without waiting for the gyratory to be removed. It also covers the places, buildings and backstreets that a highways programme alone can’t reach.
We think it fits well with the Council’s stated priorities for a safer, more accessible and attractive high streets, fewer long term empty shops, more pedestrianised space, well lit footways, tackling fly tipping and graffiti, quieter cycle routes, and good value for money.
We look forward to publishing our report before the end of 2026.