It might be the summer festival season but in considering the great outdoors Will Mooney, Carter Jonas partner and joint head of its commercial agency and professional services in the eastern region, goes urban so no wellies required.
The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is a Jubilee initiative where, a charitable trust will enshrine 2,012 spaces, in perpetuity, for public recreation. Yet, by June there were still more than 700 spaces being sought and the Fields in Trust chief executive expressed her disappointment with lack of progress.
The week after the Jubilee Pageant saw Granary Square, King’s Cross open as London’s newest public space, built on the former site of the station’s sidings and goods yards. This occasion saw one broadsheet newspaper initiate debate about ownership of public spaces.
It’s a debate worth having.
As a nation, we’re living an increasingly urbanised existence and so, on a daily basis, the bulk of our population’s encounter with the great outdoors is open spaces in cities or towns.
A seam of this debate is consideration of just who owns public space and what is meant by ‘public space’ in our times. In certain quarters, there’s discomfort about these spaces being owned by private interests and the fact that the owners specify what can and can’t be done in these newly created spaces.
However, the counterpoint is that while this model of private ownership might be new, bylaws and protection of public spaces to make them clean, safe and useable is not.
As cities expand, public spaces have to be created as part of wider development. Granary Square is a new space created by the modernisation of the King’s Cross complex which, before its recent development and that of St Pancras next door, was a neglected and dingy part of a main London gateway.
Now it’s a showpiece.
Just west, along Marylebone Road, is Regent’s Park. Developed to a masterplan incorporating open spaces and surrounding houses in the early 19th century, the freehold of the Park is owned by The Crown Estate and it’s managed by a government agency, The Royal Parks. The Park is gated, activities within it are regulated and public access is restricted at night.
But which Londoner or visitor would say it’s not a public space?
Holland Park is a similar case. It was a rural part of London until 19th century development, along a similar model as that of Regent’s Park. The Park itself has byelaws and is gated yet it is a district and public park managed by a local authority – albeit the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
While these parks are funded and managed either directly or indirectly through the public purse, to create, develop and maintain new sites for public open space in densely populated areas, we need to see that Granary Square is more the model now in a time when private interests fund what the public purse can’t or won’t afford.
It’s not just in the crowded south east where private investment is being offered in order to ensure the perpetuity of public open space. Aberdeen City Council is considering the need for a £50 million gift from a local businessman for redevelopment of its famous Union Terrace Gardens, as part of a wider £140 million scheme for an arts complex. Although the proposed development will re-shape the gardens, they will still be public.
The Gardens were once the site where Aberdonians laid out washing to dry.
What we want from our public spaces has always evolved.
We are happy to shop or enjoy leisure pursuits in safe, clean, cool, modern shopping malls – owned and managed by private interests – so why does that attitude change when it comes to public open space, just because there’s no roof?
Will Mooney MRICS
Partner
Commercial, Cambridge
The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is a Jubilee initiative where, a charitable trust will enshrine 2,012 spaces, in perpetuity, for public recreation. Yet, by June there were still more than 700 spaces being sought and the Fields in Trust chief executive expressed her disappointment with lack of progress.
The week after the Jubilee Pageant saw Granary Square, King’s Cross open as London’s newest public space, built on the former site of the station’s sidings and goods yards. This occasion saw one broadsheet newspaper initiate debate about ownership of public spaces.
It’s a debate worth having.
As a nation, we’re living an increasingly urbanised existence and so, on a daily basis, the bulk of our population’s encounter with the great outdoors is open spaces in cities or towns.
A seam of this debate is consideration of just who owns public space and what is meant by ‘public space’ in our times. In certain quarters, there’s discomfort about these spaces being owned by private interests and the fact that the owners specify what can and can’t be done in these newly created spaces.
However, the counterpoint is that while this model of private ownership might be new, bylaws and protection of public spaces to make them clean, safe and useable is not.
As cities expand, public spaces have to be created as part of wider development. Granary Square is a new space created by the modernisation of the King’s Cross complex which, before its recent development and that of St Pancras next door, was a neglected and dingy part of a main London gateway.
Now it’s a showpiece.
Just west, along Marylebone Road, is Regent’s Park. Developed to a masterplan incorporating open spaces and surrounding houses in the early 19th century, the freehold of the Park is owned by The Crown Estate and it’s managed by a government agency, The Royal Parks. The Park is gated, activities within it are regulated and public access is restricted at night.
But which Londoner or visitor would say it’s not a public space?
Holland Park is a similar case. It was a rural part of London until 19th century development, along a similar model as that of Regent’s Park. The Park itself has byelaws and is gated yet it is a district and public park managed by a local authority – albeit the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
While these parks are funded and managed either directly or indirectly through the public purse, to create, develop and maintain new sites for public open space in densely populated areas, we need to see that Granary Square is more the model now in a time when private interests fund what the public purse can’t or won’t afford.
It’s not just in the crowded south east where private investment is being offered in order to ensure the perpetuity of public open space. Aberdeen City Council is considering the need for a £50 million gift from a local businessman for redevelopment of its famous Union Terrace Gardens, as part of a wider £140 million scheme for an arts complex. Although the proposed development will re-shape the gardens, they will still be public.
The Gardens were once the site where Aberdonians laid out washing to dry.
What we want from our public spaces has always evolved.
We are happy to shop or enjoy leisure pursuits in safe, clean, cool, modern shopping malls – owned and managed by private interests – so why does that attitude change when it comes to public open space, just because there’s no roof?
Will Mooney MRICS
Partner
Commercial, Cambridge
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