A Bridge Too Far?

A vision of London's Garden Bridge

So anyway, it finally looks as though the Thames is to have its garden bridge after all. Ever since our very own Ghurkha girl, Joanna Lumley, way back in the late 90’s, raised the potential of crossing the Thames by way of a floating garden, there have been mootings and mutterings about a possible garden bridge.  Although the seed was sown a few years before, the idea properly managed to germinate around the time of London’s most recent renaissance, that of the 2012 London Olympics. During that time, and not since the BritPop era of the early nineties, had we as a nation felt quite so invincible, seeming to believe that any grandiose design idea – especially one based within the capital - could be midas-touched and blessed by the people.

So it was that a few U.K top-trendies somehow found themselves to be straddling that rather fortunate, age-old axis, that of being in the right place at the right time. Again, with the echoes of Olympic success still bouncing around the Millennium Stadium, design folk such Tom Heatherwick (he of the famous flaming Olympic cauldron) and Dan Pearson (Blighty’s very own Piet Oudolf) set about working on ideas for a garden bridge.

Planning applications were submitted in 2014 and a judicial review took place a year later, along with ground surveys of both the north and south banks of the famous river. The foundations of such a project, both literal and metaphorical were looking good. So, bridge building specialists were approached, as were specialist steel manufacturers and planting contractors, Willerby Landscapes of Kent. All the hard stuff, the very structures designed to keep us elevated and dry seemed to be advancing well.

Artistic mock-ups of the proposed bridge

But what of the actual planting elements on the bridge itself? Designing, imagining, creating what will be a massive park… on a bridge, comes with huge horticultural challenges. The journey across the bridge will be designed to tell the tale of the capital’s horticultural history, with ancient old wild marshland being depicted towards the south side, unfolding its proud heritage into more ornamental gardening as you cross the water north towards Temple.

Of course, it is around this area, long-famed for its inner temples of law and order, where the Knights Templar of the 12^th century brought back many plants from the holy land, including figs, roses and lavender, creating gardens that to this day, are revered all around the world.

The High Line. Similar, but also very different

Within this story, there is of course an elephant in the room, albeit a rather small one. It’s very hard to discuss London’s garden bridge without also making reference to New York’s High Line, a 1 ½ -mile long disused train line elevated some nine meters above Manhattan’s Lower West Side. Instigated in 2009, the High Line has undoubtedly become the world’s largest landscape design project of the last 50 years.  In fact, ever since its initial conception, London’s garden bridge has constantly been referred to as ‘London’s High Line’ and has, in my opinion at least, been driven ever-so-slightly with at least some degree of Anglo-American competition.  

But of course, though appearing to be quite similar ideas, there are some very strong fundamental and critical differences between the two projects.

Firstly, New York’s High Line was created more in the spirit of our original Olympic bid, in that it was designed to help regenerate an extremely deprived part of the city. It made use of a huge, and pretty ugly, redundant infrastructure that was ear-marked for demolition anyway. Quite unlike London’s garden bridge, which promises to link two already popular tourist destinations (the South Bank and Temple) which quite frankly, don’t need linking. One can hardly argue that these two areas of London are in any way impoverished and in need of regeneration.

Secondly, and quite unlike The High Line which has successfully enhanced the landscape of a rather uninviting part of Manhattan, London’s garden bridge is set to ruin one of London’s most historic and iconic views: the sweeping view from Waterloo Bridge across the Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral. Maybe London’s parks and gardens should remain exactly where they are, hidden away behind the rows of terraced houses and sitting within the many squares, waiting to be discovered like the secret oasis gems they all are.

However, in an attempt not to sound like the half-empty kind of guy I’m often accused of being, and in the spirit of balanced reporting, there are of course, many good things to say about the this potential project.

I feel it will offer the people of London, both tourist and worker alike, a free and unrivalled method of crossing the Thames. I’m sure it will be glorious. A way in which to cross the Thames, already a pleasure in itself, one will be transported like a passenger through one of the world’s most creative and innovative landscape designs.

Once again, and following on from our Olympic success, it’ll showcase British creative design, our way of thinking and inventive engineering, and will remind the world of our history of horticultural excellence.

Okay, the ‘great’ in Great Britain may not actually shout as loud as it once did. Now we have a very small manufacturing industry; an ever-increasing gap between us and the world’s super powers; all our neighbours seem to want independence, and now we are faced with a possible exit from the European Union. Well, perhaps a project such as the garden bridge is exactly what we need right now.

The view from the Temple

Our ever-changing, four-seasons-in-one-day style of weather has always been a horticultural gift to this small island. Our temperate climate, with (believe it or not) as much sun as there is rain has allowed us to grow, breed and show a huge range of diverse plants in our gardens. As a result, our horticultural heritage continues to portray us to the world as a land of green-fingered gardeners still cultivating our mixed borders, growing bountiful supplies of fruit and veg in our allotments and laying down stripes in our cut lawns at the weekend.  

Couple this with our equally-long and proud heritage of both engineering and architecture and suddenly London’s garden bridge begins to feel simply like the right thing to do. The U.K has always had a history of being able to punch above its own weight and demonstrate to the world exactly what we are capable of, and let’s be honest, when we do something, we do it pretty well in this country.

I’m sure the garden bridge will be fantastic! Like everything we do in this country I’m sure it will be an incredible success, an amazing experience for all those who use it, and yet another jewel in the crown for both the capital and the country.

Until next time.

Le Jardinier.