There seems to be a glut of commentary on the decline or privatisation of public space at the moment.
In particular, there’s been lots of publicity around geographer Andrew Smith’s research on councils hiring out their parks for events:
- https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/31/londons-parks-accused-of-creeping-privatisation-of-public-spaces
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/01/uk-parks-protection-organised-fun-councils-peace
- [his recent article on Battersea Park]: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0969776418767731
- [his book on Events in the City]: https://www.routledge.com/Events-in-the-City-Using-public-spaces-as-event-venues/Smith/p/book/9781138788855
I’ve been looking at Croydon council’s Parks Committee records for the early and mid 20th century, so these issues over municipal finances and control of parks is high on my research agenda at the moment. more thoughts in the next blog…
Some of the many recent articles on public space & privatisation:
- https://www.architectural-review.com/10007202.article
- https://medium.com/s/story/backlash-to-apples-privatized-town-squares-is-growing-97cb4d1e9da3
- Gillian Darley on Rathbone Place: https://www.bdonline.co.uk/comment/gaddafis-paranoia-is-alive-and-well-in-fitzrovia/5095425.article
also the issue of the Ministry of Defence attempting to deregister commons near their land:
This may be a key line of historical research for our @ruralmodernism network – land requisitioned by the MoD during the two world wars and then the battles of local people to claim it back.
I’m also looking forward to reading Guy Shrubsole’s new book: https://twitter.com/guyshrubsole/status/1034382231777755136
Twitter accounts:
Please let me know if you know of any good recent articles or twitter accounts.