Our drawings, Thames to Tooting: Urban block and the arterial London high street, expand upon research Fiona Scott initially did as part of the AJ/RPS Urban Design Scholarships programme which proposed a new understanding of London’s urbanism – one focused not on centres, but on routes. This linearity isn’t the American ‘strip’, and it’s not a Modernist streak of speed and movement: it’s a low-key, disorderly linearity that is particular to the way London has evolved.

These particular drawings capture a moment in time and were exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2010. They show High Street urban blocks along a long, arterial high road that runs from London Bridge, through Borough, Clapham, Tooting, and out of London, following the route of a Roman road. Roads like these are part of a large network of high streets that are the life-blood of the capital. They have an extraordinary depth and variety of form and use, which supports more than half of London’s jobs.

The drawings aimed to harness the move to a renewed recognition of the importance of our high streets after riots and recession and informed an attitude to London’s urbanism at a strategic level and how investment and resources could be distributed. The drawings and what they encapsulate about truly understanding and valuing what already exists in all its complexity is foundational to the ethos of the practice and how we go about our work.