However good the design, Victoria Tower Gardens is the wrong place for London’s Second Holocaust Memorial: It is a classic London park, made before sport became a dominant aspect of park design. It was designed for local residents to…
Blog Archives
London parks, open space, landscape and green infrastructure planning 1943-2017
The term ‘green infrastructure’ was introduced to London landscape planning in the 21st century (in the 2008 revision of the 2004 GLA London Plan). The 2017 Draft Environment Strategy, which will become part of the 2018 London Plan, uses Green…
Quaggy River reclamation in Sutcliffe Park for flood detention and habitat creation
When I first visited Sutcliffe Park in 1992 it was a paradigm of dullness in parks, unless, like me, you were looking for a good example of an inter-war park designed to get a supply of fit young men in…
London National Park City? or Green Grid? or Landscape Strategy?
Reading about the idea of making London a National Park City, I assumed the idea was to establish a National Park Authority for London. As Peter Massini explained at the presentation of the 2017 Draft London Environment Strategy, it is…
Green infrastructure planning for London’s urban landscape
London has a proud tradition of planning green space in conjunction with urban development. As outlined in the above video, it includes (1) the choice of a riverside site by the Romans, (2) the fabulous network of parks planned by…
London opens its largest new park for 470 years: Walthamstow Wetlands
Formerly known as Walthamstow Reservoirs, the Wetlands were opened to free access by members of the public on 17th October 2017. Its area is 211 hectares and the only 2 larger parks in London were formed by Henry VIII, who…
2017 London Draft Environment Strategy for Green Infrastructure – Peter Massini
Peter Massini (head of green infrastructure at the GLA) explained the 2017 Draft Environment Strategy to a joint meeting of landscape architects and ecologists on Thursday, 23 November 2017 held in AECOM’s London offices. He said its main characteristic is…
2017 facts about London Cycling – and a question
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…
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…
Recent comments on LAA