Some cheer for the end of the year
By Clare Graham, Chair, Open Spaces Committee
Improving our local open spaces
At the end of a 2021 overshadowed by Covid gloom and doom, and with the prospect of more of that to come in 2022, our local open spaces feel like a more important resource than ever.
I was pleased, if not exactly surprised, to read of a recent academic study which demonstrated how much regular visits to urban parks can enhance our mental wellbeing, promoting as they do not just a feeling of contact with nature, but the sense of social inclusion too. So it feels appropriate to celebrate the end of the year by highlighting some recent small improvements spotted during my own regular visits to Battersea's open spaces.
A brand new open space!
Well, not exactly—but in late October I was cheered to discover that Transport for London had created this large new bed at the north end of Elspeth Road, as part of its improvements to the junction with Lavender Hill and Latchmere Road. There's an exceptionally wide section of pavement here, created like the small open space opposite within a 1960s road-widening scheme. The bed is attractively planted up with three liquidambar trees, and some tough perennials which should spread next year. The gaps in the perimeter let rainwater drain off the pavement, to reduce surface flooding and help irrigate the plants.
A better-lit railway viaduct
This is the viaduct at the east end of Cabul Road, next to Cranleigh Mews. The photo was taken on a recent December morning, looking westwards into Cabul Road and towards Shillington Park. Behind is Falcon Park and Latchmere Passage, a useful through route for both cyclists and pedestrians. These simple new night lights fitted by Network Rail are far more effective and cheerful-looking than their dingy predecessors. When first set up in October they looked even cheerier, as they were left on a test mode which had them flashing on and off and running through a sequence of bright colours. But even fixed on plain white they remain a big improvement.
Wandsworth’s new public realm improvement fund
Back in November, Wandsworth Council announced it was devoting an extra £5 million for the renewal of the public realm, to deliver "a series of refurbishments and improvements to Wandsworth’s streets, green spaces and travel infrastructure." Personally I'm a bit sceptical about some of the announcements to date—does the resurfacing of paths within Battersea Park, Heathbrook Park and Latchmere Recreation Ground (shown above) count as "improvement," or even "refurbishment"? Isn't that just "maintenance"?
The same goes for repairing and repainting park railings in Battersea Park and Christchurch Gardens; the latter at least look to be in pretty good condition—see the photo below.
Drinking fountains, cycle racks, and other small improvements
It was more exciting to read that the new fund will be used to install twenty drinking fountains across the borough, including ones for Battersea Park, Wandsworth Common, Christchurch Gardens and Fred Wells Gardens. The example shown is at the south end of Fred Wells Gardens. The design is utilitarian, but not unsightly; they look relatively hard to damage, and also relatively easy to replace if they do get vandalised. There are to be 115 new bike racks, too—including 52 for Battersea Park, and some for Christchurch Gardens and Shillington Park. We are also promised improvements to lighting, paving, planting, seating and sightlines along our local section of the Thames Path, and to the lighting under other as-yet-to-be-specified railway viaducts.
Larger schemes for Harroway Gardens and Shillington Park
Separately, a second-stage public consultation is currently running for the improvement of that strangely hummocky little park, Harroway Gardens. This has developers' funding to the tune of £428,000; there are three designs to choose between, all perhaps rather too unambitious. But take a look and see what you think, before the 6 January deadline. Open Spaces will be commenting, and is also keeping an eye open for a second-stage consultation for improvements to Shillington Park, overdue as a follow up to the first-stage consultation held last summer.