The Super Rich

Britain (or London at least) has gone mad over news that the super rich want to live here. A gluttonously luxurious development of 86 appartments at One Hyde Park has sent everyone into a spin. The general consenus seems to be that it's disgusting that some people can afford such fripperies as golf simulators when the rest of us are suffering so. But who cares what the super rich can afford? Surely it's a good sign that some people at least still have money to keep the economy pootling along? I had forgotten about how strong the politics of envy, or is that class, are here.....

The High Street is in a funk

Everyone is reporting the changing face of the British High Street after an Ordinance Survey report....

The recession means:

:: Building societies -28%

:: Employment offices -13%

:: Travel agencies -9%

:: Hairdressers +3%

:: Car washes +28%

Or as The Independent put it... Where shops and pubs once thrived, now bookmakers and boarded up premises live. It feels like Britain is falling into a deep funk....deeper perhaps than how bad things really are. But it will get better.... the pubs will open again.....

Hand drawn maps of Hackney

How beautiful.....

Thames floating walkway links riverside attractions

It's not just UCL students thinking about how to improve the Victoria Embankment.

The Evening Standard reports.....

A futuristic floating boardwalk is set to be built along the north shore of the Thames in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The eye-catching walkway would border a river garden stretching along the Thames from Blackfriars to the Tower of London.

The design by Gensler won Best Conceptual Project and the overall Planning Excellence Award at the London Planning Awards.

Bye Bye Elephant & Castle Subway 4

Not to be missed....

Discovering the East End

Today I discovered that a) East London isn't so far away as everyone thinks; b) there are some nice bits, like Chrisp Street market, and Docklands arts quarter Trinity Buoy Wharf; c) it is incredible (and perhaps slightly obsene) how Canary Wharf can be seen like a distant eldorado everywhere you go; and d) almost anywhere feels safe if you visit in daylight.



For a project on the area, I spent a day walking around the East side of Canning Town. I also got my first live sight of the Millenium Dome, er I mean the O2 stadium. Here are some pics.

Reasons to be cheerful?

This article appeared in the December issue of Town and Country Planning

Emma Vandore reports on the TCPA’s Annual Conference, ‘Plan and
Deliver?’, held on 30 November at One Whitehall Place, London

He told the sceptics to stop looking so ‘glum’.
Addressing the TCPA’s Annual Conference,
Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark told the
audience that the Government’s proposed planning
reforms aren’t about enabling the Home Counties to
block development in their backyard. Community
planning, he said, is about transforming the planning
profession from one of ‘development control
officers’ into enablers of community dreams.
It was a sort of British version of ‘Yes, we can!’

To read the article, check it out in the Dec issue here.