London Architect Peter Murray ‘wants to be the cycling czar after two friends died in crashes’

Campaign: Peter Murray launched the Golding Rule in memory of his friend
Grant Smith
Ross Lydall @RossLydall29 September 2016

An architect who has had two friends killed while cycling in London has applied to become Sadiq Khan’s new cycling and walking commissioner.

Peter Murray, 72, chairman of the New London Architecture forum, said he wanted cyclists and pedestrians to be “allies” rather than adversaries in making the capital’s roads safer.

He launched a campaign to protect vulnerable road users after the death of fellow architect Francis Golding, who was hit by a left-turning coach in Bloomsbury in 2013.

He then spoke out about the “slaughter” involving construction lorries after the death of museum director Moira Gemmill on Lambeth Bridge in April last year.

Mr Murray, whose nephew James Murray is Mr Khan’s deputy mayor for housing, told the Standard: “Active travel — bringing together walking, cycling and public transport — is I think the key solution to what we do with our city centres. I have always been interested in safer cycling, because I’m a cyclist. I also believe that walking and cycling cities are more civilised than those that are rammed full of tin boxes.

“We are working towards a better balance. We have not got there yet. What we did for city centres in the 20th century was pretty disastrous.”

Mr Khan decided to broaden the commissioner’s role from that held by Andrew Gilligan during Boris Johnson’s mayoralty, when it was solely focused on cycling. However, he has been criticised for making it a part-time job.

Mr Murray, from Turnham Green, who has been cycling in London for 40 years, said he welcomed the dual responsibility. “If you look at some of the issues that came out of having a commissioner who was only looking at cycling, there were areas where walking and cycling came into conflict,” he said. “I think that is not a good thing. Pedestrians and cyclists are allies in improving city space.”

Mr Murray, who was a member of Mr Johnson’s design advisory group, launched the Golding Rule — yield to the most vulnerable on the road — in memory of Mr Golding, whose work included the City’s Walkie Talkie skyscraper. Mr Murray knew Ms Gemmill from her time in the late 1990s as the then-head of exhibitions at the Museum of London. “Two quite close friends have suffered high-profile deaths in London,” he said.

After Ms Gemmill’s death, he called on the construction industry to take action to cut casualties to zero. “Architects should make sure that clients and contractors are fully aware of the issues and that only lorries with properly-trained drivers and the necessary safety equipment should be employed on their sites,” he said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in