London deserves its own great public square – one worthy of postcards, of celebrations, of idle evenings spent in good company, writes John Oxley
Being out of London for some of the summer, one starts to pick up some of the things our city tends to lack. Air conditioning is clearly one, but there is perhaps a bigger omission – the lack of decent, enjoyable public squares. While the opinion pages of this very paper offer a world-leading metaphorical public forum, nowhere in London can really say the same for the real thing.
Europe knows the power of the public square, why not us?
The cities of Europe tend to have grand public squares. Places where you can while away an evening in a grand old market square or plaza, overlooked by a grand statue or ornate cathedral. London seems to lack the same.
Trafalgar Square tends to host city spectacles, but it is rarely a pleasant place to be, choked with traffic on all sides. Westminster Square is similarly more of a roundabout than a public place. St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey lack the stately settings of, say, Milan’s Duomo or Venice’s St Mark’s. Even the Mall, centre of Royal pageantry, is a normal road most of the time. And on none of them can you really enjoy a tranquil drink.
This is to London’s detriment. It makes the city a less pleasant place to be for both tourists and locals. It deprives us of a good civic space for major events, with occasions from St George’s Day to Diwali ending up cramped and unappealing. A proper public space would offer an economic opportunity and social benefits, drawing people towards a new focal point in the city. It is something most European cities can boast, but which seems sadly lacking in London.
Sluggish planning is holding London back
This, of course, is a design choice. While many of Europe’s cities inherited their market squares and plazas from previous generations, others have been able to forge good public spaces for themselves. In Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads was recently transformed from a grim and underused mess of bicycling parking into a welcoming and eco-friendly public landscape. Barcelona is in the process of turning its cruise ship terminals into new public spaces for retail and civic events. There are plans to do the same around the Sagrada Familia as Gaudi’s masterpiece crawls towards completion after more than a century of building work.
Each of these plans points towards a decisiveness and determination modern London seems to lack. Olympics aside, major projects in the capital are slow to progress, dragged back by those with a vested interest in the status quo. Decades ago, we could manage big projects like the Barbican or the South Bank, which developed new public spaces and amenities, albeit imperfect ones. Now, changes like the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street or Soho move at a glacial pace, or are killed entirely by nimbyism and a political system too beholden to residents and deaf to the requests of others who use the capital. The 2003 redesign of Trafalgar Square only managed to reclaim one side from the traffic.
If London is to remain a truly world-class city, it needs spaces that reflect its stature, blending public and private use for tourists and locals alike. That requires vision and political courage, the willingness to reimagine our streets and build with ambition. Other cities have shown it can be done, and to great effect. For now, even our best public squares are clogged with traffic, squeezing public enjoyment to the side. It needn’t be this way. London deserves its own great square – one worthy of postcards, of celebrations, of idle evenings spent in good company. Others have found ways to create them; perhaps we should, too.
John Oxley is a corporate strategist and political commentator