a small but important change to Rådhuspladsen
/Until recently - so until the opening of a new metro station on the square at the front of the city hall - many of the people arriving on foot at Rådhuspladsen have come from the central railway station ① where, leaving the station at the east end of the concourse, they cross over Bernstorffsgade - in part drawn across the road by the view of Tivoli gardens in front of them but probably, also, directed subliminally by the very wide and obvious pedestrian crossing here controlled by lights.
Walking to the corner of the block and turning across the north side of Tivoli, people reach first the main entrance to the Tivoli gardens ② and then, if they are heading on into the city centre, the pavement along the side of the distinct glass frontage of Industriens Hus, ③ and from this corner there is the first full view of the city hall and the square.
Another wide crossing, again controlled by traffic lights but here with a wide central reservation, ④ takes pedestrians across the heavy traffic of HC Andersens Boulevard with the city hall ⑤ to their right.
For most tourists, and a large proportion of commuters, their route is then on to another wide crossing over Vester Voldgade. ⑥ Although there is much less traffic along this road, across the east side of the square, there are again lights where people have to wait before entering Frederiksberggade, the main shopping street that is now better known as Strøget or The Walking Street. ⑦
Of course, many pedestrians enter and leave the square by other roads but the majority of people cross the square on this main east/west axis.
looking from the square towards Frederiksberggade (above) and the view from the north-west corner of the square (right) when there was a wide road across the centre of the square, from Vesterbrogade to Frederiksberggade and the north part of the square, opposite the city hall, was a major tram interchange
proposed changes with just lanes for bikes between Vestergade and Strøget so with no cars driving across the east side of the square
For many years, much of the north end of Rådhuspladsen has been screened off by high hoardings as the new metro station was being constructed. The metro station ⑧ opened in September 2019 and is a major station on the new Circle Line.
Already, this has changed the pattern of people entering and crossing the square and it seems clear that more and more people will come here to the metro station to reach the streets at the west end of the city centre. The main steps up from and down to the metro platform is immediately north of that east to west axis.
A recent and new proposal is that part of Vester Voldgade ⑨ could be paved over and closed to all traffic apart from bicycles. This is the road across the east side of the square that cuts across the route between the metro entrance and Strøget.
Traffic along Vester Vodgade from the south - from the harbour - would come to a turning circle just before Strøget ⑩ and would have to return. As much of the traffic is taxi cabs, picking up and dropping off people on the square, this would seem to be a reasonable proposal in terms of traffic movement.
Early photographs, taken before Frederiksberggade was pedestrianised, show the wide road of Vesterbrogade - approaching the square from the west - continued straight across the centre of the square and for most of the first half of the last century this central part of the square seems to have been a wide and well-used taxi rank.
Traffic from the north - from the upper part of Vester Voldgade - would be able to turn into Vestergade but would not be allowed to continue on towards the harbour. ⑪
Presumably, only people delivering goods or simply using Vester Voldgade as a short cut to avoid HC Andersens Boulevard will feel frustrated by the new arrangement.
After Rådhuspladsen was laid out at the end of the 19th century, the north part of the square opposite the city hall was a major tram interchange and then, more recently, a major bus station but bus stops have been moved off the square and are now on HC Andersens Boulevard and at the east end of Vesterbrogade.
The part of the Vester Voldgade to be paved over is just over 60 metres long and just over 6 metres wide but paving over even this small section would make a significant difference to the square - not least because it would reduce and spread out the shuttle-run of people walking across the centre.
Although here on a much smaller scale - in terms of paving and changes to the street scape - this is a version of the remodelling of the street above Nørreport station by COBE. There, there is a major railway station - a station on the suburban railway system but underground - and access was on a central island with heavy traffic along both sides that separated people arriving at the station from a main pedestrianised shopping street and from popular pedestrian areas nearby. The solution there, as here on the town hall square, was to remove the traffic on one side to connect the area at the centre to the pedestrian streets and to restrict the traffic to just one side so, here at Rådhuspladsen, restricting heavy through traffic to HC Andersens Boulevard across the west side of the square.
