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World Squares for All
World Squares for All is a masterplan to transform sites in the heart of London for enhanced pedestrian access and reduced traffic and pollution. There are currently 3 phases to the plan: Trafalgar Square (completed in 2003), Parliament Square and the Whitehall conservation area. A steering committee, to be supervised by the Greater London Authority, was formed in 2008 and includes Members of Parliament. It is unclear how the project will proceed in the coming years given the May 2008 defeat of London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who championed the pedistrianization of the city and oversaw the successful completion of Trafalgar Square.
In Summer 2008, the new mayor canceled the redesign of Parliament Square as well as other pedestrianization projects [2]. He also subsumed Design for London, a prominent new agency whose purpose is to elevate people-friendly street design above traffic engineering, into a larger development agency.
Former mayor Livingstone commented that "Boris doesn’t want to end in upsetting the motorists...it should be an amazing world square, not a squalid traffic roundabout." He was most critical of the demotion of Design for London: “Basically what they are saying is that design becomes secondary to whatever the immediate priorities emerge to be on the site" [3].
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
[1] World Squares for All. Greater London Authority, 2008.
[2] 100 Public Spaces Axed in London Design Shake-up, Building Design, August 1, 2008.
[3] Ken Blasts Boris for ditching 100 Public Spaces Programme, Building Design, August 1, 2008.
[4]
PICTURE REFERENCES
Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] Panorama - Parliament Square by Rene Ehrhardt on Flickr
[2]
FURTHER READING
- Streets for All (pdf) from English Heritage
KEYWORDS
Ken Livingstone, Pedestrians, London
