LACUNA has been appointed by Westminster City Council Place Shaping and Culture teams to support the Council in delivering a series of public art commissions across Praed Street . LACUNA is leading on the Praed Street public art commissions that will play a pivotal role in bringing visibility to local stories and communities, past and present, as well as addressing functional needs on the high street.
LACUNA’s process began with an in-depth study of the area exploring both its present character and rich historical context. This research has formed the basis of a detailed visioning study, through which we have contributed to Westminster Council’s place strategy. Building on this initial work, we have now identified potential sites for artworks.
A key part of LACUNA's approach has been meaningful engagement with local stakeholders to ensure that all objectives are aligned and that the new commissions will support Westminster City Council’s wider ambitions for the area.
LACUNA’s solid experience in commissioning works with artists across all backgrounds and at various stages in their career, will ensure a diverse and engaging programme of artworks.
Looking ahead, LACUNA will collaborate with local communities to develop a programme of cultural activities that will celebrate the local identity, stories and history of the area whilst providing opportunities for participation and connection.
LACUNA will foster a vibrant arts and culture scene that reflects the area’s diversity and heritage by creating a colourful, dynamic public realm that celebrates the rich community landscape of the area.
The ambition for the Public Art Programme
In 2023, WCC launched the Westminster High Streets Programme, a new borough-wide programme to support high streets to become more diverse, resilient, and sustainable. The vision is to make them the backbone of thriving neighbourhoods where goods, services and green spaces are a walking distance from residents’ doorsteps. To deliver on this ambition, they created the Westminster High Streets Framework which sets out the vision for high streets across the borough. The framework covers three over-arching objectives:
· Safe, Sustainable & Welcoming Place
· Vibrant & Resilient Economy
· Connected Communities
Paddington – Bayswater was one of the three priority areas to roll out the programme, with £10 million capital funding committed to delivering a range of projects across these local high streets, including Edgware Road, Praed Street, Queensway, Westbourne Grove and Porchester Road.
During the summer of 2023, the Council conducted their public engagement to hear from residents, visitors and business owners about their views and ambitions for the future of Paddington – Bayswater’s local high streets.
The public art programme sits within the Praed Street area. In summary of the community’s feedback, the priorities were:
Creating a welcoming and safe street environment
Diversifying the high street’s uses and improving its retail offer
Creating opportunities for social interactions and cultural activity
Creating a welcoming and safe street environment
Praed Street Overview
Praed Street, named after William Praed, the chairman of the Canal company that built the Paddington Basin, was created in 1828.
Paddington Station is now the second busiest railway station in London, with 109 million railway and underground entries and exits annually, and around 16,000 daily Heathrow Express users. According to on-street surveys, most participants said that Praed Street is a place for social encounters: meeting people (28%), enjoying leisure during the day (31%), and at night (36%). Similar to Edgware Road, 22% of participants visit Praed Street for work, and 13% use its retail offerings for everyday essentials and services.
Praed Street in Paddington, London, is an area rich in history, originally dating back to the early 19th Century when the Paddington Basin was first developed. The Grand Junction Canal Company oversaw the construction of the Basin, a significant moment that marked the area as a key gateway into London, improving trade routes and industry and encouraging the growth of national and international communities.
The area is renowned for being home of Paddington Station, one of the UK’s busiest and most iconic railway stations. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the station first opened in 1854, setting a precedent for its expansion and development to become the bustling hub it is today. A short walk from Paddington Station is St. Mary’s Hospital on Praed Street, where Sir. Alexander Fleming made his revolutionary discovery of penicillin in 1928. Today, the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum is located within the hospital and serves to commemorate this moment in science with plans for the redevelopment of the Fleming Centre also confirmed. A new research and public engagement facility on the St Mary’s Hospital campus will build on this legacy by focusing on developing solutions to antimicrobial resistance.
The sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903–75) and her work is indelibly linked to the landscape of St Ives and West Yorkshire, to the extent that we rather overlook the fact she was also a metropolitan artist and that London was significant in the overall narrative of her career. London remained the site of some of Hepworth’s most important exhibitions and major public sculpture projects across the 1950s and 60s. An increasingly successful career entailed frequent travel from the South West of England via Paddington Station. Indeed at Paddington — presumably, whilst waiting for a train — Hepworth made one of the first drawings in her famous ‘hospital’ series, which she inscribed ‘Sketch made in notebook Padd. St. Nov. 14th 1947’. This was developed into the painting Theatre Group I (1947), now in the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario.
In the 1960s, the increasing demands of a successful career required extended stays in London and she chose to stay at the then Great Western Royal Hotel. For nearly ten years, the hotel became the centre of Hepworth’s art-based social life in London.
Barbara Hepworth, Reconstruction, 1947 © Bowness, Hepworth Estate / Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
* Extract provided by Dr. Stephen Feeke, December 2025.
Location
At present, there is one wall identified which offers an ideal backdrop for storytelling on Praed Street: 7-9 Praed Street, W2 1NJ
Expression of Interest
The Expression of Interest for the Praed Street Public Art Programme is now open.
Applications must be submitted via curatorspace.com.
Deadline for Expression of Interest: 5.00pm (GMT), Friday 24 April 2026.
