The UK has been in lockdown this spring. Our worlds are far smaller than before.
It reminds me of being a child, needing to tell my parents where I was going, not straying too far away from home. That all changed when I got my first bike! I could explore my village from edge to edge and still be home in time for tea. My world suddenly got bigger, I became an explorer. I’ve been hooked on cycling ever since.
Cycling in the city doesn’t come so naturally for many people though. Without years to build up your confidence, London’s roads can look scary. Parents rarely let their kids out on their bikes alone, and many adults see danger at every junction. Dare I say that some cyclists have a bad reputation in London and so people may be cautious about joining that tribe?
In London, where roads cover 12% of the total area of the city, more land is devoted to roads than to houses and flats1. What if all that space was available to everyone so that they could roam freely and safely on their bikes?
During the lockdown so far, I’ve seen many more people out cycling. Families taking their daily exercise together on two wheels. Couples riding Santander Cycles to stretch their legs as an escape from their cramped flats. NHS workers being gifted bikes to help them travel safely to their hospitals. The more people who spend part of their time journeying on a bike and part of their time journeying on their feet, the more we all learn to see the world from different perspectives.
Many of London’s Councils have been responding positively, creating ‘pop up’ cycle lanes2. The Mayor and TfL are creating segregated cycle lanes on the network of London’s larger roads3. And now the UK Government has announced dramatic plans to encourage more cycling and walking4.
The support and enthusiasm from our politicians at all levels is exciting. But what really makes me positive about the future of cycling in the city is what community groups and local charities are doing around helping people get on their bikes.
- Cycle Sisters5 encourages muslim women to discover the enjoyment of cycling, boosting their confidence and their fitness.
- Bikeworks CIC are planning on launching a Ride Side-By-Side6 service for older people to use as an active travel taxi service that they describe as a pedal-powered version of Dial A Ride.
- Recycle Your Cycle7 and The Bike Project8 take your rusty old bike and give it a new lease of life. One trains up prisoners so that they can become bike mechanics on release, the other donates the bikes to refugees, giving them mobility for free.
- Bikeability Trust9 runs the government-backed programme that helps us all to learn to cycle.
What if all these changes do lead to more people cycling in London in the future? What if more streets were transformed into mini-Holland schemes like we have seen in Walthamstow10? What if we saw the end of polluted air outside schools as more people switch their cars for pedal power11? What if your GP prescribed cycling to help you lead a healthier and happier lifestyle12?
What if we made the most of these positive desires and locked them in when the lockdown lifts? Send us your ideas using the hashtag #WhatIf.
David Cope, National Park City Foundation Trustee
1. http://www.nationalparkcity.london/component/content/article/8-place/53-london-in-numbers?Itemid=1116
2. https://twitter.com/willnorman/status/1258345675571462145?s=20
3. https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayors-bold-plan-will-overhaul-capitals-streets
4. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/2-billion-package-to-create-new-era-for-cycling-and-walking
5. https://www.facebook.com/CycleSistersWalthamstow
6. https://www.bikeworks.org.uk/what-is-ride-side-by-side
7. http://recycleyourcycle.org.uk/
8. https://thebikeproject.co.uk/pages/mission
9. https://bikeability.org.uk/
10. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mini-holland-scheme-in-walthamstow-hailed-as-major-success-as-traffic-falls-by-half-a3389936.html
11. https://www.mumsforlungs.org/about-school-streets
12. https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/09/government-says-doctors-will-prescribe-cycling-make-people-fitter-12679108/
Just before the coronavirus hit, there were several projects about to launch after successful crowdfunding bids. Here are three great examples of the ingenuity and creativity of communities reshaping their environments and making London greener, healthier and wilder.
Ride side by side
Bikeworks CIC in Hammersmith and Fulham raised £30,000 for this scheme to get senior members of their community involved in active travel.
Participants will be over 60, have an issue with mobility, be socially isolated, or be visually impaired. People will book a trip by phone. A rider will pick them up, riding a side by side cycle and take them on a trip of their choice for an hour and half. They can choose to go shopping, visit a friend, visit a local amenity such as local park, or just explore their areas and get some exercise. They will get help at their destination, such as help with carrying shopping or getting on and off the cycle. Participants can choose to pedal or just enjoy the ride in fresh air. The riders will be trained in cycling and cycle mechanics, managing risk, working with older people and have an up to date DBS check. They will be sociable and friendly.
Ride side by side © Bikeworks CIC
The project will help people least likely to get their recommended amount of exercise, bringing them health benefits. It will enable them to get out in the fresh air and explore their local area. They will be visible to others giving the locale a more balanced representation of its residents.
By giving people the opportunity to be active, the service will reduce participants reliance on the NHS, since it will improve their well-being due to the exercise and the conviviality.
Ride Side-by-Side will tackle loneliness and isolation. People will have an opportunity to chat with their co-rider (pilot), interact with others, tell stories about themselves and reminisce.
Active travel and chat © Bikeworks CIC
Ride Side-by-Side will help people with things they need to do like shopping, visit friends and family, explore the borough or get to an appointment. It will have a broader impact with regards reducing motorised trips and showcase active, emissions free travel.
In Hackney, the Kings Crescent Tenants and Residents Association crowdfunded more than £17,000 to transform a shop into a new community space. The dream: a beautiful venue to host fun & inspiring activities & events serving their diverse estate residents & the wider community.
The project is supported by Hackney Council and the Mayor of London © Kings Crescent Tenants and Residents Association
The new space is a raw, fully accessible 360 square metre shop front unit, which we will make habitable and beautiful. We’re so excited to be joining forces with local arts charity Hackney Showroom to transform this new unit into a dynamic community space and work together with the community to dream up new plans for activities and events for all. The adjoining play street will be utilised too, enabling even more community activities to be run outdoors in suitable weather.
Play Street © Kings Crescent Tenants and Residents Association
The TRA plan to deliver a timetable of activities in line with the wishes expressed by Kings Crescent residents. Ideas requested from the community so far include cookery demonstrations, street parties, a book club, homework club, youth club, gentle exercise for older residents and music events.
Hackney Showroom is delivering a programme of creative & cultural projects including: FUTUREHEADS, a holiday project for 8-11 year olds; Disco Loco, a family arts programme for the very young and their families; Hackney Showroom Young Actors, a high level skills based training course for 16-25 year olds serious about a career in acting.
We are so thrilled to be able to enjoy a meaningful collaboration with Hackney Showroom and think this coming together has bags of potential! Our contrasting strengths will really be an asset to the community - the TRA with our grassroots engagement with local residents, and Hackney Showroom with their expertise in conjuring up inspirational activity, is a recipe for a great future for our local community.
“We are excited to be partnering with Hackney Showroom on this venture as they bring a vast amount of knowledge, experience and connections.”
For more information on the Kings Crescent regeneration project, visit: https://www.hackney.gov.uk/kings-crescent-estate.
Streatham Community Woodland Project
The project will protect the woodland habitats for future generations and increase the wildlife and habitats. The activities will give the communities skills, knowledge and a sense of belonging.
© Streatham Common Co-operative (SCCoop)
The project aims to increase wildlife and prevent address the decline of the woodland from water erosion and trampling. They’ll do this by creating a wild trail pathway through the woods and by fencing off areas to allow wildlife to thrive. This, and some other planned work, will provide areas of additional interest for all users of the Common.
The project aims to inspire long-term volunteer involvement with the woods and nature reserve; building relationships with people whilst building habitats for wildlife. The existing volunteers come from a cross section of the surrounding communities, already engaged with local primary schools, colleges and groups representing local people with social difficulties, such as homeless charities.
Why it's a great idea:
Is essential for the wildlife that the group makes it a resilient habitat. Improved biodiversity will be delivered through a series of volunteer activities under the guidance of the Head Ranger. Scrub and brambles will be cleared to allow more light to penetrate and enable other plant species to populate the woodland floor. There will be removal of invasive species from the woodland area and improvement of the soils where needed. Following that we will plant young indigenous trees, other understorey woodland plants and meadow plants to enhance butterfly and other insect numbers. New hedgerows will also be created to form an enhanced corridor beyond the woods.
© Streatham Common Co-operative (SCCoop)
The project will bring the wider community closer and broaden the reach of the woodland to many that may not know of its existence.
What if?
#WhatIf... there was more funding for initiatives like this post coronavirus?
#WhatIf... more people actively crowdfunded projects to make London greener, healthier and wilder?
Staying safe by staying at home needn’t mean missing out on a daily dose of nature, says Paul de Zylva, Chair of London National Park City.
Now’s also a good time to start planning life after lockdown including how life in London can be greener, healthier and wilder.
Life inside out
Spring has sprung and we all need to get out more, don’t we? But just as people want to be out and about, the coronavirus lockdown confines us to quarters.
Staying inside is tough and we’ll have to see how it affects the nation’s physical and mental health.
At least it’s springtime. Without being pollyannaish just imagine if the nights were drawing in and we faced the prospect of a lockdown Christmas. We want to be cosy indoors at Christmas but at least we can choose to get out for exercise.
As the sap rises, trees come into leaf and bees busy themselves, the springtime lockdown is fuelling our desire to escape the confines of four walls, however homely, and to head to parks and the great outdoors for exercise and contact with nature.
People have also told me, and are saying on social media, how they’re noticing things they usually miss or take for granted.
Or, in the case of author, Alan Cleaver, who amusingly admitted on twitter:
“Living next to a pub, I'm used to late-night revellers shouting but what really annoyed me was the chap who would imitate an owl hoot around 2.30am every night. Now pubs are shut I realise the hooting still goes on and it's not a drunk. It is actually an owl.” @thelonningsguy
And he lives in ‘the countryside’.
In our busy ‘normal’ lives there’s no time to look, listen and appreciate our surroundings is there? Or perhaps we don’t make the time. Besides, there’s always something else to do.
But even now, when it’s easier than ever to be distracted by devices, online chats, exercise and learning courses, people are noticing things. Birdsong is being heard as never before thanks to it being spring but aided by the lack of noise from traffic-free roads and aircraft-free skies.
London’s air is also cleaner than usual and its streets safer to cross. We are not alone in enjoying some of these new experiences. Residents of Los Angeles have also enjoyed the rarity of clean air. People in northern India are enjoying unusually clear views of the Himalayas, and the shutdown in Japan coincides with the tradition of viewing (‘Hanami’) of the cherry blossom.
Declarations of optimism
On a walk soon into the lockdown I saw the brilliant white hawthorn in full bloom. A few weeks later the foaming mass is gone. Even the powers of flowers can’t resist the cycle of the seasons. It’s not sad, it’s what happens. Like other plants, the hawthorn will now move on, shifting to the next seasonal gear and focussing on forming its small red berries (haws) for birds to feast on during lean winter months.
Meanwhile, the hedge will provide all manner of wildlife with shelter, materials and more. And the blooms will be back next spring, and perhaps even during Easter.
Easter weekend has passed but, as Christians may point out, we’re still in Eastertide - the fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. In ancient Greek the word ‘Anastasi’ means ‘to rise’ and ‘resurrection’. It also means ‘to emerge’ and ‘to shift’ toward a higher ‘arisen’ or awakened state.
Spring’s sights and sounds also herald the start of the gardening season with many tending their window boxes, balconies and houseplants and, if they have one, their garden or allotment.
Sales of seeds have rocketed as many have a go - often for the first time - at sprouting microgreens on a window sill, making bee-friendly pit-stops of their pots and planters, or food growing Dig for Victory-style.
If ever there was a declaration of optimism it’s the springtime sowing of seeds and nurturing them into plants. Sharing and swapping seeds and seedlings is also trending as part of the renewed sense of community as neighbours talk, often for the first time, help with shopping, give to food-banks and support local businesses.
Park and pounds
London’s parks and green spaces are also being valued as never before. Long before the lockdown studies stated how routine access to nature and green space supports good physical and mental health.
Some GPs have also been advising patients to increase their time spent in nature and the great outdoors rather than rely on prescription medicines.
As if more evidence of how green space is good for us was needed, a 2017 study of the financial benefit to our health of London’s parks found they save £370 million a year in avoided mental ill-health costs alone – that’s £42 per person every year.
That’s fine if your area is well served with green space, but not all communities in the capital have equal access to parks and green open space.
Greening the grey
The London borough of Tower Hamlets has 300 hectares of public parks. Having the equivalent of 300 rugby pitches sounds a lot but it’s just 14 percent of the borough which covers 2,200 hectares.
For people living in Tower Hamlets, from Bethnal Green and Canary Wharf to Limehouse, Poplar and Wapping, that means having poor access to public parks in London for a hint of a breath of fresh air – if they’re lucky – or for a break from the glass, steel and concrete jungle.
The government values parks and green spaces too. In its 18 April covid-19 briefing, the Communities Secretary, Robert Jenrick, ordered parks to be kept open during lockdown:
“…there have been examples of some parks around the country closing. This cannot be right. While the virus does not discriminate, we know that the lockdown is much harder for people who don’t have a lot of living space, who don’t have a garden, and who don’t have anywhere for their children to run around.
“People need parks. That’s why I have made it clear to councils that all parks must remain open. For the health of the nation, people should be able to safely enjoy fresh air and green space.”
I couldn’t agree more, but it doesn’t help that government policy and funding cuts mean our parks and green spaces are in decline and often face development pressures.
More of the good stuff, please
The huge demand by millions of people for green space right now says loud and clear the government can and must start meeting people’s needs, not preventing us from having more of the good stuff which we want (and need) for our health and wellbeing.
There’s also the matter of people in flats. Some of my neighbours who rent are prevented from using the garden, which is madness even in ‘normal’ times. With that denial being underlined by the lockdown perhaps they’d like to have the opportunity.
Who knows? Perhaps this will also challenge thinking that new housing shouldn’t have or does not need much or any garden space which is touted by some, but not all, developers, architects and planners.
The usual mantra of things being too expensive, or that parks and green space have to be developed for our own good won’t wash.
What If?
We CAN have quality, truly affordable housing AND quality local green space that’s good for us and for the birds and the bees - it’s time for our own recovery to be planned with that of nature.
What if we emerged from this crisis with plans to make our streets, neighbourhoods and city greener, healthier and wilder?
That doesn’t have to be a dream. It’s what thousands of people from all walks of life have worked for by getting behind London National Park City.
What if we made the most of these positive desires (#WhatIf) and locked them in when the lockdown lifts?
Send us your What If? ideas using the hashtag #WhatIf
What if London National Park City was greener, healthier, wilder and more beautiful?
What would it look like?
What would it be like?
We’re calling for optimists to help visualise a hopeful and possible future for the region and to share their vision in our Prize to Transform the Future. It's been established by London National Park City, the region’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Parks, along with Ordnance Survey and Culture Declares.
Judges include Surrey based artists Ackroyd & Harvey, Hampshire based landscape architect Merrick Denton-Thompson, London based climate change lawyer and activist Farhana Yamin, Somerset nature conservationist Mya-Rose Craig and London based adventurer Dwayne Fields with many more to be announced from across different parts of the region and with different interests.
Dan Raven-Ellison, founder of the London National Park City, said:
“I hope lots of people will be inspired to rise to this challenge. This may not be a financial Prize, but the potential reward is something much greater, deeper and longer lasting than that. We are currently facing a number of urgent wake up calls. Our health, our ecology and our climate are all entwined in states of emergency that threaten our lives and livelihoods. We need bold and positive visions that we can get behind to restore our futures and make life better for ourselves and future generations.”
Artist Heather Ackroyd said:
“The arts have a tradition of sparking cultural change and ‘speaking differently’: disrupting the status quo and creating emergent space for new ideas to engage people at an imaginative level. Here, the vision to transform the future is all about imaginatively creating those wilder and greener emergent spaces and putting ecology and nature right at the centre of the bigger cultural landscape.”
Rob Fairbanks, the Surrey Hills Director states:
"We live in one of the most beautiful and diverse regions in the world with its wonderful landscapes of farmland, woodland, common, heath and downland. We are part of this landscape and dependent on it for our food, water, clean air and well-being. In a time of so much change and anxiety, we hope The Prize can be a powerful opportunity to visualise a healthier future for ourselves in greater harmony with our natural environment."
Full details on how to enter the competition can be found here. The competition Twitter page is here. Please use the hashtag #PrizeToTransformTheFuture
