I walk through the park at Guy Street twice a day, to and from my way to the Studio. It’s a bit of a closed/drab park surrounded one major-ish road, but 3 minor roads that I’ve never seen any cars drive down. The metal fencing on the boundary has always seemed as an ‘over-the-top’ measure, which closes the green space away from the residential blocks on the perimeter.The park is a used by a key pathway for people walking to and from London Bridge Station, but the landscaping seems to have been designed less in mind for the pedestrian, and more in mind for the car-driver.
I think a far better way to understand this space would be to see it as an area which links one side of the park with the other, instead of having a patch of grass surrounded by fencing to keep people out, and then driving a pathway through it!
How’s about reimagining the park as an extension of the residential blocks on its perimeter? By retaining the main road, the other 3 roads are converted to ‘slow-go car/pedestrian’ areas. The park is now seen as a conceptual ‘front garden’ to all of the flats on its edge, and the visual barrier of an ugly tarmaced road is removed. The road surface is replaced with a ‘grass-crete’ treatment, [which is grass interwoven between a concrete mesh], so that a visual link is made between the centre of the park + the edge of the residential blocks, The park looks larger, is more welcoming, is still protected from the major road, and is integrated within the local context and community. A colour scheme to enforce this new spirit can be introduced. The Guy Street Community’s Park is created!
