Introduction
Main Body
Urban Public Space
• What is public space?
o Public, Urban, Public Space, Urban Public Space. – Spell it out.
Public has extensive meaning for the extents of this essay I will be using the following definition. – ‘a public is a collection of people or a section of the community that have particular interest or connection to the matter under consideration’
An idealistic definition of public space – “space that is entirely free and accessible in all places at all times and fully supported by public funds.” (Beardsley, 2007)
“Public spaces are the physical manifestation of the public sphere, allowing politics and democracy to become less abstract.” (Smith, 2016)
The physical composition of urban public defines and locates them materially. “Spaces are created and configured by the structures that frame them” (Smith, 2016)
Spaces are far more than just physical compartments in a city – “Space is not just a physical container: it is a social and cultural phenomenon” (Smith, 2016) these spaces provide a stage for day to day interaction “stages on which various publics come together in all their contentious differences, sparking a conflagration of public, political, and social interaction.” (Beardsley, 2007)
Public space is not catering for a single public. Publics are plural different groups define different publics and each must be provisioned. “We have to talk of multiple, often conflicting, publics in the plural.” (Beardsley, 2007)
o John Ruskin Quote
“The measure of any great civilisation is in its cities and a measure of a city's greatness is to be found in the quality of its public places, its parks and squares.” John Ruskin
o Accessibility
Physical restriction – fences, walls, etc.
“Public parks are often seen as the epitome of urban public space, but they are often gated, with restricted access to certain times of the day. Enclosure is seen as a negative trait; but it can be positive too: by protecting the spaces and users”. (Reeve and Simmonds, 2001)
Social accessibility – how welcome different groups feel in the space. “Subtle visual cues that show only certain people are welcome.
“We Live in a divided society; and therefore any attempt to provide equal access to a ‘mythical general public’ is doomed to fail. Urban spaces that are attractive to some will deter other groups, so universal access is an ambitious objective – perhaps an impossible one.” (Carmona, 2010)
o Management
Stewardship. “Space is deemed public if it is managed in a way conducive to public use and public benefits.” (Smith, 2016)
Public use is something that needs careful regulation. Rules need to define the use of a space that do not infringe upon the “conflagration of public, political, and social interaction.”
Lots of spaces (or more precisely their managers) do tend to disregard the aforementioned and “highlight that urban public space is often designed to control behaviour – not to host unfettered interaction.” (Smith, 2016)
Smith concludes: “Ultimately, many prominent public spaces function not as spaces for the public, but as symbols of the regimes that govern cities. (Smith, 2016)
Without regulation anti-social behaviour and conflicting uses would thrive.
Neglected spaces will enter decline and become less and less well used.
Over managed spaces may also deter user groups, limiting the diversity of the audience.
Over controlled spaces begin to raise the question of publicness – through encouraging and prioritising security and safety the space loses the essence of publicness.
o Ownership
“The idea of urban space that is owned by the people and managed democratically for the use if everyone is an idealistic vision rather than any discernible reality.” (Smith, 2016)
People don’t care about ownership as much – as long as they feel safe, welcome and comfortable. This emphasises that public space can be defined by programme rather than ownership.
The dichotomy of public and private ownership is becoming increasingly blurred “There is extensive public regulation of private space and an increasing amount of private management of publically owned space.” (Smith, 2016)
“The idea of urban space that is owned by the people and managed democratically for the use if everyone is an idealistic vision rather than any discernible reality.” (Smith, 2016)
• Threats to Public Space
o Privatisation
Public space is defined by private interest and programme
If our public spaces exemplify public culture, by “handing such spaces over to corporate executives and private investors means giving them carte blanche to remake public culture” (Zukin, 1995)
Combatting privatisation – Kinder Scout Trespass
Public vs. Private – The triumphant ramblers at Kinder Scout would be mortified by the deterioration of publicness, with pseudo-public spaces beginning to thrive. A circumstance that became familiar to me upon a visit to the “Piazza Walk” along Leman Street, Aldgate where I was reprimanded by security for attempting to straddle one of the horse sculptures in the square. (Photo of Square)
“We can no longer speak simply of public space as opposed to private space; we are increasingly dealing with a hybrid that is not entirely one or the other.” (Beardsley, 2007)
o Commercialisation
Commercialisation is inherently linked to privatisation – nowadays a space is used is becoming increasingly overlooked in order to maximise the revenue that can be generated by a space.
“In many circumstances commercialisation of public space is not an unfortunate side effect of our increasingly commercial world but a deliberate strategy.” (Smith, 2016)
“Urban governments attract commercial activity to streets, squares and parks – to help animate them, but also to help generate the revenue required to maintain these amenities.” (Smith, 2016) Questions, may be raised, however, as to whether the revenue is truly being reinvested in full or whether profits are being taken and spent elsewhere in less publicly relevant sectors.
The commodification of urban spaces impairs their service to the community. By initiating parks, squares and streets as commodities they become intrinsically disconnected from their locality and lose their significance as community or public amenity. (Piccadilly Circus)
Detracting from the parks responsibility to provide public service.
o Securitisation
Events in the City – pp.23
The Commercial City
• Major Events: A History
o Greenwich Fair – Charles Dickens
• Contemporary Major Events
o Olympic Games
Equestrian Arena – Greenwich Park – Create link to Greenwich Fair
Festivalisation – A temporary one-off mega festival.
Live sites – Hyde Park and Victoria Park
• The London Live Sites are a good example of the commercialisation of public spaces. Although thy were located in public parks, space was enclosed by a rivate event organiser who then dictated how the space was used. (Osborn and Smith, 2016)
o Music Festivals and other events in London
Winter Wonderland @ Hyde Park
• Huge capacity for events
• Commercially driven
• Event space takes up small portion of the total park – Map – Refer back to this when discussing Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park
• Councils becoming increasingly reliant on Parks as a Commercial Asset – commodification and creation of a ‘brandscape’ (Smith, 2016) [paraphrased]
o Highlights the pressure on councils to generate income under austerity – Councils are desperate to find ways of generating revenue
Over reliance on parks as commercial venues leaves councils vulnerable to funding shortfalls if events are moved or cancelled.
o Come to the point that the Parks need to be protected from local authorities
Friends of Finsbury Park – since the three-day Wireless Festival was first staged there in 2014, the park had effectively become a “round the clock commercial venue.”
Public + Community – Not only the loss of access but enduring the practical inconvenience, the noise and trucks
o Commercial gain being prioritised over community benefit
“Parks are a great triumph of the British state that we should be looking after, because once it’s gone it’s gone. We’ve got to realise that parks are special, beyond any financial calculation of what they’re worth”
• Privatise vs. Commercialise
o It’s much better to have a sustainable programme of commercially driven activities than to privatise the park.
o But does commercialisation lead to privatisation? -> Creeping privatisation of public space or pseudo-public spaces
• Public View
o The effect of commercialisation and appropriation ultimately affect the users, local residents, etc. (various publics) that utilise the park most.
Access to park, noise pollution, denigration of surrounding streets and public environs
o The Friends represent the interest of these various publics.
o “As far as possible the park should be kept as just that- not a venue. Most people round here do not have gardens- we need that space for exercise and fresh air. Increasing commercial use reduces our accessibility to these things and the noise and disruption are not worth it.” [pp.28] (Haringey Council, 2013)
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