The just-published report Street Smarts: Report of the Commission on the Future of London’s Roads and Streets contains facts about cycling and leads me to ask: do cyclists have their fair share of (1) London’s road space? (2) London’s investment? I guess…
Blog Archives
Crystal Palace Park Trust and landscape architecture history
Are public parks best managed by local authorities on not-for-profit trusts? Bromley Council is about to find out. It took on the management of the Crystal Palace Park when the GLC was wound up. I think it did a better…
Solving London’s urban flood problem – a landscape architecture approach
Tom Turner’s lecture was given to the London Parks and Gardens Trust on 21st June 2017. This post has an edited version of the text Summary, Gentle rain, frightening floods and design of public open space The Woolwich Flood Barrier…
Burgess Park 1943-2017 landscape architecture review
Burgess Park in Southwark, South London, was identified as a good site for a major new London Park in the 1943-4 Abercrombie County of London Plan. Sir Patrick Abercrombie, who was on the Council of the ILA (which became the…
House building on the London Green Belt: would a Grand Bargain make it possible?
Should house building be allowed on London’s Green Belt? Not yet. Building on brownfield land and densification are better options. But if we look further into the future, as did an advocate of landscape architecture in 1829, building on the…
London landscape and open space planning
The LAA website provides an outline of the history of London open space and greenspace planning with free downloads of past examples. It is an important subject. But the lack of agreement the best name for this type of plan has resulted in conceptual confusion. Some of the names…
The Metropolitan Green Belt and sustainable landscape planning for a greener 21st century London
[Note: there is a longer version of this video below, with more about the history and about the environmental roles of the London Green Belt] The London Metropolitan Green Belt is under threat from house builders, who prefer building on…
The landscape architects’ role in managing London’s flood problem
The Mayor of London launched a consultation on Sustainable Urban Drainage in 2015. Robert Holden and Tom Turner discuss the issues, in the above video, and make the following points: London needs an integrated water plan for surface water drainage,…
Green belts: the history & landscape architecture of a key planning idea
John Claudius Loudon’s 1829 proposal for ‘zones of country’, ‘breathing zones’ or ‘breathing places’ round London is the probable origin of Ebenezer Howard’s 1898 proposal for what became the London Metropolitan Green Belt, though there are older sources for the…
Westminster Bridge urban landscape design and pedestrianisation – TfL consult on cycle lanes
TfL are consulting on the creation of superhighway-style cycle lanes on Westminster Bridge, as discussed in the video, below, by Robert Holden and Tom Turner. The consultation period ends on 22.12.2015. Our conclusions are: TfL and Lambeth Council should consider…
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