Garden bridge over the Thames

The revival of the Thames’ South Bank over the past two decades has created a vibrant and artistic district attracting large number of visitors to its art galleries, theatres, music halls, restaurants and outdoor entertainment. However visits to Temple and the north bank area east of Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge are far less freq­uent. Thomas Heatherwick has shown that a new London bridge could grow and nourish the infrastructure connection between these distinct areas, whilst providing new walking routes to and from Covent Garden and Soho.

The Hanging Garden of London refers to a pedestrians’ Garden Bridge that is planned to span the River Thames in London. The allusion to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may be slightly exaggerated since Babylon’s treasure was once one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Conceived in 1998 but not yet funded or approved, the Garden Bridge will feature trees, gard­ens and walking parths. Costing perhaps £60–£100 million, the bridge will 367 metres long and 30 ms wide. It will link the the south bank of the Thames to Temple tube station on the north side. Horticulturalist Dan Pearson will design the planting scheme.

The bridge’s designer, Thomas Heatherwick, believes that Londoners’ experience of their river has been marginalised by successive transport moves. So the designers need to explore the relationships between cities and nature, and the significance of plants to human health, economic success and social change. And not just for locals; presumably the scheme would increase visitor numbers to London.

Centre spans of the proposed London bridge
Photo credit: Heatherwick Studio

London’s city workers would be encouraged to take their sandwiches to the new bridge, to sit on benches or to walk down the garden paths. Only thus can the vitality of green space in urban landscapes and the signif­ic­ance of them for human health and well-being be reinforced.

A comparison is always made to the High Line in New York. Originally built in 1929, the railway line was raised high above the ground and used to safely transport freight along the Westside waterfront. Its main users were the warehouses and markets in Manhattan’s Meatpacking Dist­rict. But by 1980 the line was not used any more and lay neglected and derelict for decades.

In 2004, the New York City government committed itself to est­ab­lish a park on this old, disused transport line. A design competit­ion, that attracted 720 entries from 36 countries, came up with plans that included high-flying pools, wetlands, outdoor art projects, bicycle paths and nature trails.

Views from the proposed London bridge

Photo credit: Heatherwick Studio

In April 2006, New York’s mayor ceremonially marked the beginning of construction on the High Line project, turning it into an elevated park. In June 2011 a ceremony was held to open the High Line second section, from 20th-30th Streets. At a cost of $152.3 million for the two sections so far, a natural oasis had been created in an urban city.

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I'm all in favour of a garden bridge over the Thames, but there is a very important difference between the London & New York projects. Having an elevated urban park that connected New York’s neighbourhoods and provided a sense of place was a unique, transformative public experience. It was considered a radical demon­stration of people power and local planning, based on the idea that an open space could be at the heart of neighbourhood revital­is­ation. As a result, the High Line has been embraced by New York and is now an integral part of that city’s contemporary culture.

London is not trying to revitalise an existing piece of infrast­ruc­ture that has been neglected for decades. Nor will London’s Garden Bridge utilise or demonstrate people power. Rather the brand new bridge will offer gor­geous green spaces, clean air and fabulous river views in the centre of a very busy metropolis. So the question remains: can we realist­ically expect that the Garden Bridge will become an integral part of London’s contemporary culture?

Locals and visitors are loving the completed High Line,

high above Manhattan streets in New York.

Clearly other cities are now interested in the concept of a garden bridge. The Reading Viaduct in Philadelphia is a hulking century-old masonry and steel railroad trestle, runs for ten blocks north of Centre City. Abandoned since 1984, the viaduct has long been overrun by weeds and rubbish. But now there is growing interest in redeveloping the railway into an elevated park. The success of High Line in New York, in terms of number of visitors and of private investment moneys, has prompted Philadelphia to explore its own rails-to-park proposal. The co-founder of the Reading Viaduct Project says it could connect several neighbourhoods. She believes that redeveloping the Viaduct would be far less expensive than the $50 million it would cost to demolish it. And it should rejuvenate surrounding neighbourhoods.

Reading Viaduct in Philadelphia is currently derelict. 

But following New York's High Line success, perhaps Philadelphia can have a similar rails-to-park programme.