Artist impressions of how cycling in Holborn could look if the long-awaited overhaul of the area’s roads takes place

A PLAN to overhaul Holborn and finally make it safe to cycle through has been relaunched in the week a driver of a lorry that killed a woman riding a bike through the notorious “gyratory” was jailed following an Old Bailey trial.

The Holborn Liveable Neighbourhood Scheme was initially abandoned after the Mayor of London withdrew funding for the project in 2020, despite the outcry over a series of cyclist fatalities in and around the chaotic circuit of roads going back to 2008.

After Dr Marta Krawiec died at the junction of Theobald’s Road and Southampton Row in 2021, it was agreed to restart the project.

Early stage design work for a complete overhaul of the area has been unveiled for the first time, coupled with a launch of a full consultation on safer junctions at Theobald’s Road, Gray’s Inn Road and Clerkenwell Road.

John Chamberlain, from the London Cycling Campaign, said: “But it is a tragedy that it took eight deaths to unlock funding for the area.”

Driver Kevin Allen was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison on Monday after a jury heard that he had not indicated soon enough before switching lanes and hitting Dr Krawiec.

The 69-year-old driver, who was delivering steel from Wales to a construction site in Holborn, had pleaded not guilty to causing death by dangerous driving but was convicted by a jury.

Dr Marta Krawiec

In 2022 lawyer Shatha Ali became the eighth cyclist to die in Holborn since 2008 when she was killed opposite the tube station.

The Extra reported at the time how local authorities and the Mayor of London were strongly criticised for failing to introduce safety changes despite calls over many years, going back to 2008 when Wan-Chen Chang McGuinness died in a collision with a lorry at Southampton Row.

A series of fatal accidents have followed with Dorothy Elder, Alan Neve, Francis Goulding, Federica Baldassa and Dr Peter Fisher all losing their lives in and around Holborn, mostly following collisions with heavy goods vehicles.

Dr Krawiec worked as a paediatrician specialising in allergies at Guy’s Hospital in Lambeth.

Shatha Ali

After her death, her friend Emma Raha had told the Extra how she was at the time feeling happy to “survive” the Covid-19 pandemic, and said: “She was very honest about her nervousness, about the PPE [personal protective equipment] training, and her vulnerability at work.

“For her to get back to her patients, that was really special for her.”

And this week Dr Krawiec’s partner Raphael Baskin told the court about how her “dreams, plans and hopes were taken away from her”, and added: “She loved her bicycle, she started cycling during the pandemic, on the morning of the tragedy, Marta had gone for a run on Hampstead Heath, said goodbye to her partner and left on a journey you all know too well.

“Our lives will never be the same…”