What is street furniture?
Street furniture is the collective term for objects placed in the street, mostly on the footway, that are not part of the road itself. The Dutch term is straatmeubilair.
Typical examples are benches and seats, lamp columns, litter bins, bollards, railings, cycle stands, bus shelters, signs, post boxes, parking meters, planters, tree grilles, information pillars, fountains, statues and utility cabinets. The carriageway, kerbs and paving belong to the highway itself and are not counted as furniture.
Street furniture has a large effect on how a street looks and how easy it is to use. In England and Wales, the Department for Transport’s Manual for Streets and many council streetscape manuals push to reduce “street clutter”: remove redundant items, group what remains and keep the footway clear. Manual for Streets 2 goes as far as recommending that designers start with no street furniture and add items only where they serve a clear function.
Recognising it
If an object stands on or beside the paved surface and could be removed without digging up the road, it is street furniture. A gully belongs to the road; the cycle stand next to it does not.
In practice
- Keep a clear walking route. Line furniture up along one edge of the footway so pedestrians, wheelchairs and buggies can pass freely.
- Combine functions. A lamp column that also carries a sign saves a post; every redundant item is another obstacle to maintain.
- Check for buried services. Foundations for columns and pillars often go in the footway, where cables and pipes run; trace them before digging.
- Placing something yourself? A bench or planter on the public footway outside your house generally needs permission from the highway authority or council. Ask before you put anything down.
- Choose robust materials that stand up to vandalism, de-icing salt and damp.
Common mistake: adding furniture after the street layout is finished. It then ends up in the middle of the walking route or blocks sightlines for traffic.
Related terms
- Tree pit
- Guard stone
- Gully
- Building line
- Zoning plan
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