A couple of very useful resources on the change from public to private ownership of some parts of London, with a focus on some of its Royal Parks.
The Guardian has had a range of wonderful articles on cities over the summer, and their section of the website is worth exploring if you are studying cities.
Over the summer there have been a number of concerts, including Radio 2's Festival in a Day, and some big gigs such as Phil Collins in Hyde Park. These required parts of the park to be fenced off and access restricted to what is normally a public space.
This was discussed at the RGS's Summer conference.
Winter Wonderland has been installed in Hyde Park, and will remain there for the next few months. It opens today!
Is this part of the creeping privatisation of many cities, such as the sell off of land at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to Westfield.
For more on this, read Anna Minton's 'Ground Control'
The Guardian has had a range of wonderful articles on cities over the summer, and their section of the website is worth exploring if you are studying cities.
Over the summer there have been a number of concerts, including Radio 2's Festival in a Day, and some big gigs such as Phil Collins in Hyde Park. These required parts of the park to be fenced off and access restricted to what is normally a public space.
This was discussed at the RGS's Summer conference.
Dr Andrew Smith, an urban geographer from the University of Westminster, studied the use of Finsbury Park, Gunnersbury Park and Brockwell Park and found councils were increasingly over-reliant on them as commercial assets.
The trend towards bigger and more frequent festivals in parks highlights the pressure councils are under to generate income under austerity, he said.
“It’s for good reason – they’re desperately trying to find ways of making revenue, but it’s got to the point where we need to think about protecting parks from local authorities’ exploitation.”
“If you live next to one of those parks, you not only lose the access for several weeks of the year, but you also endure the practical inconvenience, the noise and the trucks as well. It’s a double whammy.”
Winter Wonderland has been installed in Hyde Park, and will remain there for the next few months. It opens today!
Is this part of the creeping privatisation of many cities, such as the sell off of land at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to Westfield.
For more on this, read Anna Minton's 'Ground Control'
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