So often it’s the small pieces of urban design that are done so poorly…

Exhibit A: a set of railings on Crouch Hill in Crouch End (north London).

The railings themselves are of very limited apparent use – presumably to stop cars cutting the corner going in or out of Abbots Terrace, though even if cars did it’s hard to see how that would pose a danger to pedestrians or cause damage to the surface. They are also, and have been for some time, damaged.

But even if in good repair and necessary, they would still be a bog-standard design which rarely looks attractive anywhere and whose materials and styles are out of keeping with the surrounding street and properties.

Yet it is these details – the look of road name signs, the style of bollards, the appearance of railings – that cumulatively can do so much to raise or depress the look of an area and the pleasure or dislike it gives people living there. Good design need not be expensive either – but it does require people to be committed to doing their jobs well rather than content with sticking in any old bog-standard approach and ignoring its impact.

There is a growing recognition of the benefits of paying attention to such design details, particularly removing unnecessary street clutter. In at least some parts of the country, the old-style proliferation of numerous pole, each holding just the one sign, is on the retreat. But there is far more still to be done.