THE course for Hereford's future was set in one of the world's great port cities - Marseilles.

There, BDP tested the masterplan for what it would like to do to High Town.

Though applied on a larger scale, the principles were the same.

A study examined all of the city's pedestrian and vehicular areas to outline integration options.

That's what will happen in Hereford where the ideas arising out of such a study will be drawn together to create an overall composition.

Take pedestrian movement as one of the issues BDP has already identified here. A solution lies in work the group has done in another great port - Liverpool.

Its recently completed project in the Rope Walks area of that city made for a more accessible historic centre with a system of signs and new links. BDP believes a similar approach will work for Hereford, too.

Go south to the Tower of London. An attraction to thousands, but few saw St Katherine's Dock alongside. BDP did. This 'wonderful waterside location' is now out of the Tower's shadow. All it took was a little demolition and the creation of a new archway.

Follow this thinking along the Thames to Southwark to see how BDP would redefine Hereford's 'relationship' with the Wye.

A new public space is proposed to link the Thames with Southwark Cathedral, a setting to soak up atmosphere. Just what the Wye needs according to BDP when Hereford - admittedly like many other UK towns and cities - partially turns its back on the water.

But 'big' schemes come to nothing if the basics aren't right. Basics like paving and furniture, the 'streetscape' that BDP believes lets Hereford down in spite of its fine buildings.

Subtlety sees such surrounds enhanced. A subtlety BDP applied to Salisbury and the improvements made to an environment very similar to Hereford.

Bold can work too, though. In Fareham, Hampshire, BDP devised a series of iron sculptures as street art for a town that was home to Henry Cort, the inventor of puddled iron.

Who might inspire Hereford?