The paper examines the impact of street improvements to enhance walkability and streetscape quality as an active public space, with a case study of London, UK. Improved streets show a clear market response with significant uplifts in retail rental values (7% per annum in intervention areas, 5.5% in mid areas (includes the intervention area and the surrounding roads that might also benefit from the intervention)), a substantial decrease in retail vacancy rates (58% fall in intervention areas), and greater resilience in retail types compared to unimproved areas which saw an average 2% per annum decline in rental values and a 116% increase in vacancy compared to mid areas.