Green Spaces Project of
the Month
January
2005 - Mile End
Park, London
Contact: Lorraine Hart, Environment
Trust, tel. 020 7264 4660
email: lorraine@envirotrust.org website: www.milendpart.co.uk
.
Introduction
Criss-crossed by roads and intersected
along race, class, gender and age lines,
this urban park illustrates how people
from diverse ethnic backgrounds negotiate
`contested space'.
Established in 1944, the Abercrombie
Plan for London intended Mile End Park to
serve as a `green lung' allowing the
impoverished, overcrowded East End to
breath. By the 1960s a sports stadium had
been built and some landscaping achieved
but the park was fragmented. A long, thin
strip of open space alongside the canal,
either side of the Mile End Road,
commuter traffic cuts the park in two,
and several main roads criss-cross the
site, causing massive noise and air
pollution and, at one time, making it
very hard to walk or cycle between one
residential area and another. The
original dream was to create a unified
stretch of parkland forming a green
corridor and pedestrian link between
North and South.
It was not until 1995 that the vision
began to materialise, when the
Environment Trust together with the East
London Partnership and the London Borough
of Tower Hamlets, bid to the Millennium
Commission for funds to transform Mile
End Park into the popular amenity it is
today. Known as `The People's Park' and
hailed as `a model for the Millennium' by
Cllr Helal Uddin Abbas, Leader of the
Council, the development of Mile End Park
was based on very extensive, very
inclusive consultations. According to
`Mile End Park: A Celebration' published
in summer 2001, “a massive number of
meetings were held with local people and
the plans were changed numerous times to
accommodate what the community said they
wanted in the park. People wanted all
different sections of the community to be
able to enjoy the park, but in harmony,
not in conflict.”
The key feature in achieving this
sense of unity and harmony is Piers
Gough's remarkable Green Bridge – a
tree lined walkway and cycle route
arching high above the Mile End Road,
allowing easy passage between Limehouse
and Bow. Ongoing maintenance of Mile End
Park is funded in part by asset-based
income generation ie rental from shop and
restaurant premises at the foot of the
25m wide green bridge.
Other features in the park include
beautifully landscaped terraces with
sensory planting and lakes, which have
helped to significantly increase
biodiversity, attracting nesting birds,
dragonflies and other wild life; an
Ecology Centre to assist visitors in
appreciating the importance of wildlife
in the park; and an `Arts Park' open air
gallery and pavilion. A 1,000 seat
natural amphitheatre, the Play Arena, is
designed for all kinds of playa and
performance.
Facilities for young people are many
and varied, including a children's park
for the under 8s, electric go-karts for
bigger children, and sports facilities
for all ages, including a climbing wall
and an extreme sports centre. An
adventure playground has been built for
bigger children, the plans for the
structures being based on a
competition-winning design by young
women.
Contested space
Lorraine Hart is now Director of the
Environment Trust, and formerly organised
a series of community consultations in
her role as Community Liaison Officer
between 1995 and 2002. She seems to know
every inch of the park like the back of
her hand and is on good terms with pretty
much everyone in the area.
Lorraine explained the make-up of the
local communities, and the way this
affects their use of the park. Because
the park is open to the public, with an
unfenced perimeter, it is impossible to
monitor who uses, but from casual
observation it is clear that a range of
ethnic communities freely use the park.
However, some groups use certain parts of
the park more that others, and there are
sometimes tensions between different
users.
The Eric Street Estate is mainly
populated by Somalis and young people
from the African community tend to use
the top half of park and Bow Warf.
In Stepney, the Ocean Estate houses
mainly Bengali / Bangladeshi families who
use the part of the park near the estate
for extended family picnics. Occasionally
one sees courting couples seeking a
little privacy on a park bench.
The Somali community say that they
don't feel safe using the Ocean Street
part of the park, which they see as a
Bengali territory, because of drug
problems associated with the
“Massive” gang. A Rapid
Response Team has been set up as part of
the youth work team to address the
problem and funds have been found for a
Connexions centre based in the park.
Bow is home to the African Caribbean
community, while the area to the North of
the Mile End Road is predominantly White,
middle class, and the Palm Tree pub in
middle of park used mainly by white
working class people. Black boys often
congregate in the park and Stepney
pensioners complain to the council,
simply about the presence of the boys, as
if they feel that they pose some kind of
vague threat.
The parks plays host to an annual
fairground visit and there was trouble
one year when fighting broke out between
and local youths the Traveller lads.
Form and Function
As well as tensions between the
various ethnic community groups and
different age groups using the park,
there are tensions between the various
functions the site serves. For example,
there are tensions between the canal and
the park with canal boat users one the
one hand feeling vulnerable to vandalism,
whilst themselves being seen by
environmentalists as posing a threat to
wild life inhabiting the banks and tow
paths. Tensions exist between other
sustainable transport users: cycle
traffic has ballooned since the `opening
up' of Mile End Park, but this can cause
problems for other users such as walkers.
Friends group not very inclusive
Friends group runs lots of events with
Bangladeshi women's groups but this
doesn't lead to the women joining the
Friends group. I asked Lorraine what
stops people from ethnic communities
becoming Friends of the park? She said,
“It's like banging your head against
a brick wall” unless you're part of
a Trust and have a service level
agreement.
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