A park for the 21st century: Observations on the transformation of mile end park

Capitalism, Nature, Socialism

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 104-124

  Hindley, Jane ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LOCAL PARTICIPATION; SUSTAINABILITY; TWENTY FIRST CENTURY; URBAN AREA; URBAN DEVELOPMENT; URBAN PLANNING;

ENGLAND; EURASIA; EUROPE; LONDON [ENGLAND]; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 36549012280     PISSN: 10455752     EISSN: 15483290     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10455750701705153     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. For a detailed discussion, see Pat Devine, Andy Pearmain, Michael Prior and David Purdy, Feel-Bad Britain: A View From the Democratic Left (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming).
2. "Time-poverty," a term widely used in Britain since the 1990s, is one manifestation of the transformation of labor relations over the last 20 years. Britons now work the longest hours in Europe, with a concomitant loss of time for leisure and rest.
3. Kate Soper, "Rethinking the Good Life: The Consumer as Citizen," Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2004, pp.111-116.
4. Awards include, for example, the London First Award, 2001; Prime Minister's Award, Special commendation, 2001; British Construction Industry Awards, Special commendation; and the Green Flag Award, 2004, 2005, and 2006.
5. Jon Aldenton and Lorraine Hart, "Creating the Park for the 21st Century in London's East End," East, 1998, available online at: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/data/discover/parks/mile-end.
6. J.H. Forshall and Patrick Abercrombie, County of London Plan 1943 (London: Macmillan, 1943).
7. "Wen" means boil, carbuncle, or running sore.
8. Latham, "Forward," Forshall and Abercrombie, op. cit., p. iii.
9. Forshall and Abercrombie, op. cit., p. 3.
10. They were sharply critical of the way pre-war planners had used acquisitions in already well-endowed neighborhoods to improve aggregate ratios. Ibid., p. 42.
11. Ibid., p. 43.
12. See John Rocque's 1766 Map of London in ibid., facing page 1.
13. Gareth Stedman Jones, Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).
14. Victoria Park was begun in 1841 on 290 acres of land beyond the built-up area of Hackney to "serve as a lung for the North East part of London." The marshy site was consolidated with earth excavated for the London docks and combined a range of amenities: Paths for strolling, a boating lake with an island and Chinese temple, as well as football and cricket pitches. By 1850, according to one Victorian commentator, it had already "added to the health of the inhabitants of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green." See Cunningham, cited in Lisa Picard, Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870 (London: Phoenix Books, 2005), p. 251. Like many other parks at the time, it was partly funded by public subscription. The founders raised about 100,000 towards construction costs.
15. See ibid.
16. Current nostalgia about loss of community in the East End, as Dick Hobbes recently stressed, seems based on a generalization of the solidarity manifest during World War II and the decade of rationing that followed. BBC Radio 4, "The New East End," Listening Allowed, February 15, 2006.
17. According to Aldenton and Hart, op. cit., in the late 1980s, while little was done at the Poplar end of the park, the Bow Committee was quite active, using urban program funds to grass sites in their area, putting up Victorian-style gates and railings to create local "greens."
18. The Trust works at a strategic level, with a "spider plant" model of organizational development. In other words, it acts as a catalyst setting up projects designed to operate autonomously. For further details about the Trust, see www.envirotrust.org.
19. The Lottery has now largely displaced direct taxation as a way of funding civic projects. As many commentators have observed, it has proved an effective mechanism for upward redistribution. Less noted is its role in shifts in popular aesthetics and public norms relating to gambling. The lottery show was given a prime Saturday night slot on national television and has been followed by a proliferation of high-stake game shows. This shift was enthusiastically supported by New Labour under Blair, a fact evident in his promotion of "supercasinos" as a way to regenerate deprived areas. For a polemical essay on the lottery, see Polly Toynbee, "Good Causes, Ill Effects," Guardian October 26, 2001.
20. Aldenton and Hart, op. cit.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. These included Tower Hamlets, English Partnerships, Charitable Trusts and private investments. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Nana Ocran, Metro Guide to London Parks and Gardens (London: Metro Publications, 2006) front cover.
26. This shift has been encouraged by the Green Flag Award Scheme, the national standard for parks and green spaces, which is organized by the Civic Trust. The extensive, detailed criteria for the award include sustainability, biodiversity, and habitat enhancement. The scheme was started in 1996 and has attracted increasing interest from park managers. Nationally, the number of awards conferred has risen from 55 in 1996- 1997 to 423 in 2006-2007. In London the increase during this period was dramatic: From 4 to 82. For further details, see www.greenflagaward.org.uk.
27. Like the fast food culture, the "fast plant culture" reflects the deepening commodification of everyday life and is underpinned by a specialist industry, highly dependent on chemical inputs. Practical norms involve buying ready-grown plants rather than propagating plants from seeds, cuttings or division, as well as all sorts of quickfix chemical fertilisers, weed-killers, and pesticides. Aesthetic norms include an expectation of mature displays, and the exclusion of phases of growth and decay. Just as reliance on fast food often entails a loss of knowledge and skills relating to cooking, nutrition, and ingredients, the encroachment of the fast plant culture has eroded knowledge of plant husbandry, composting, and so on.
28. While the intensive use of pesticides and herbicides has greatly reduced the species diversity and population size in many parks and gardens, it has also changed expectations. Put simply, we have become used to hearing birdsong rather than bird chorus.
29. For a clear exposition of high modernist approaches to landscape, see James C. Scott, Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
30. In the post-war period in Britain, this preservationist ethic is evident in the demarcation of areas of special scientific interest. See, for example, Ted Benton, "The Rural-Urban Division in U.K. Politics," Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 18, No. 3, Sept. 2007, pp. 20-43; But the separation of biodiversity and play agendas is also evident in current Greater London Authority open space strategy documents (Irene Breugel, personal communication).
31. Given the former neglect, this area was undoubtedly a haven for an impressive range of flora and fauna. But without the park project, it is unlikely to have survived. The Metropolitan Open Land status of one portion had been revoked by the mid-1990s. See Aldenton and Hart, op. cit. Since then, ministers' misconceived stress on housing shortages has weakened protected area status, putting urban open spaces other than established parks at risk.
32. Author interview, March 5, 2007.
33. Against the backdrop of the sale of open spaces in the 1980s and 1990s, the fact that the park is owned by a Charitable Trust is an important protection against future asset-stripping.
34. The buildings are designed in such a way as to maximize insulation, solar gain and natural lighting. They use a Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS) system developed by the Rocky Mountain Research Center (www.rmrc.org).
35. David Orr, "Ecological Literacy." in Jules Pretty (ed.), The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture (London: Earthscan Books, 1992), pp. 21-29
36. Jules Pretty, Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature (London: Earthscan Books, 2003).
37. A point reiterated by Ted Benton in numerous conversations.
38. Orr, op. cit.
39. Scott, op. cit.
40. Pretty, op. cit.
41. Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1971], 1998).
42. Ibid.
43. Soper, op. cit.