Doon Street... and 2012

The Doon Street tower and the 2012 Olympics come under the scrutiny of Trust Chairman CHRIS SUMMER 

Earth has not anything to show more fair..
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty.

The Doon Street tower

Thus wrote William Wordsworth in 1802 of the view from Westminster Bridge; but truly dull of soul is Secretary of State Hazel Blears, who has ignored her planning inspector's advice and granted planning permission for the construction of a 44-storey tower at Doon Street, behind the National Theatre. Harold Macmillan pulled down the Euston Arch but could at least claim that we had never had it so good, so what is the justification of Blears, the arch-vandal de nos jours for ruining the views from Westminster Bridge and St James's Park, and will she overrule the inspector's advice on the Beetham Tower too, if he rightly concludes that a 170m-high tower at the south end of Blackfriars Bridge is not what London wants or needs? 

The credit crunch may yet prove to have a silver lining if these and other horrors projected at Vauxhall and in the City are put on hold. The past decade or so has been a boom time for many gardens, with the creation of opulent new gardens for the mega-rich, the television programme- inspired makeovers of the plots of those of more modest means, and the restoration of many public parks, thanks to generous grants from the National Lottery. We know that Lottery funding will of necessity be less generous in the future, to help pay for the 2012 London Olympics; and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is now saying that the provisions for 2012 will themselves have to be pared down. 

So will the present loss of financial confidence lead to a change in the way we garden? Unemployment figures are approaching two million, many people's incomes are falling, and the rate of inflation and the cost of food have risen. But will we see more productive use made of land? The Royal Parks have shown with their Dig for Victory model allotment in St James's Park how a wide range of vegetables can be produced in a small area. So far as I know (I missed the recent public presentation), the latest proposals for the revamp of St James's Square do not make provision for cabbages and runner beans and an old bath for a water supply as shown in Adrian Allinson's well-known 1942 painting, but will the aftermath of 2012 include once more turning over the park at Greenwich to allotments? Both scenarios seem improbable, but just think of the Olympic manure!

Greenwich Disruption

The Queen's House at Greenwich

Lord Coe, Chairman of LOCOG, has replied to my letter raising the Trust's concerns about the use of Greenwich Park for the equestrian events with an assurance that LOCOG is committed to minimizing disruption in the Park and that it will be returned after the games in the state in which it was received; but details of any promised post-Olympics reinstatement works are in short supply. If it is the done deal that it seems to be, Royal Parks must have a wish-list of projects that they can present alongside the bill for loss of revenue. It would be nice to think that the area below the Wolfe Monument and the interface between the Park and the National Maritime Museum might at last be sorted out properly as part of the 'lasting legacy', about which we hear so much; let us at least hope that London's longest and most inappropriately sited herbaceous border, the one south of the Queen's House, can quietly fail victim to the horses and not be reinstated afterwards. I know that the locals love it, but it shouldn't be there. A formal planning application for the works, which are described as a temporary overlay, will be made to Greenwich Borough Council for consideration in 2009.