City Views
Trafalgar Square Transformed
By Liz Clark, London Press Service
LONDON’S most famous landmark, Trafalgar Square, has been transformed and
upgraded to renew its status as one of the great central squares of the world.
Master-minded by internationally renowned architect Norman Foster, a 25 million
pounds sterling improvement scheme has made the square bigger and more
accessible as a social space for all to enjoy.
With traffic flowing on all four sides, Trafalgar Square had, over the years,
become more difficult for tourists - and Londoners - to reach. The completed
project, which took a year and a half, has resulted in the removal of all
traffic from the north side of the square, making it bigger and much more
pedestrian-friendly.
Instead of cars, vans and buses, there is now a grand 16-step central staircase
and a new piazza leading directly to the National Gallery where one of the
greatest collections of European art in the world is housed.
At a ceremony to reopen Trafalgar Square, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said:
“I am delighted to give the square back to Londoners in its new and improved
version. Trafalgar Square was originally dedicated to the public for their ‘free
and unfettered use’. Today, with the pedestrianisation and other improvements it
meets that objective more than at any time since it was first built.”
The scheme has brought in a new café, the first of its kind in the square, and
other facilities that include a lift so that people with disabilities will be
able to make the most of their visit.
In keeping with its standing as a heritage site, high quality traditional
materials were used in the scheme, with particular use of natural stone, such as
Cornish granite and York stone. Bronze was used for new street furniture and on
the benches. Improved lighting will mean the square’s many statues will be now
visible by night.
Less radical, but highly effective improvements to Trafalgar Square have been
going on since late 2000, including better cleaning standards, and the
recruitment of Heritage Wardens whose job it is to patrol the square and to
deter petty crime.
Full use is to be made of the reopened square this summer and early autumn. A
season of free events featuring leading entertainers from the worlds of music,
art, dance, and performance is under way and will continue until the last week
of September.
September’s programme will include Samba in the Square, which promises music,
colour and excitement, and Meet the Neighbours, a programme of performances
thematically linked to the great cultural institutions that surround the square.
This event also heralds the start of the Mayor’s Thames festival procession and
firework display.
Girl-Power Effect On Hotels
WOMEN executives
who travel the world on their own are big business and put about one billion
pounds into the United Kingdom travel industry. Such is the increase in lone
women travellers that hotels are taking notice of the situation and are
beginning to cater for every need of these valuable customers. In London, for
example, the five-star Hilton on Park Lane recently became the first in the
country to launch a women-only floor. Guests staying on the 22nd floor check in
at a private lobby area and are escorted to their rooms. Lifts do not stop on
that floor unless a special card is inserted into the lift, and the doors to
each room are equipped with extra-secure locks and have a larger spyhole.
Inside, the rooms have been given a more feminine look with coloured linen
sheets and women’s magazines.
A Hothouse Of Ideas
By Vicky
Huntley, London Press Service
A NEW centre in east London is set to become a major production and training
facility for artists specialising in urban regeneration projects.
Hothouse was launched in Hackney recently by the capital’s pioneering Free Form
Arts Trust - a testament to the enormous potential for collaboration between the
arts sector and public and private agencies.
Hothouse is one of the trust’s many groundbreaking art and architectural
initiatives that involve the community in helping to shape its environment. As
well as providing a new base for Free Form it offers studio and office space,
training facilities and a conference and exhibition venue. The arches of the
adjacent railway viaduct provide additional studios and workshops.
The co-founder and associate director of Free Form, Barbara Wheeler-Early, said:
“This is a very exciting project. It is the beginning of something new and the
culmination of something worth remembering. It will be a centre for urban
regeneration through the arts and cultural industries.
“Very little has been published on the development of community arts in this
country or elsewhere and, consequently, its contribution is not well understood
or appreciated. Hothouse will house a living archive that should fill a gap in
public awareness,” she added.
In its opening month, Hothouse hosted a Discover Hackney week and among the
events lined up for the rest of 2003 are Photomonth in September, bite-size and
taster infotech sessions for people of all ages, educational projects for young
people and artists’ seminars.
The project grew from an insignificant brownfield site close to Liverpool Street
station. Designed by award-winning London architects Ash Sakula, it takes its
name from the 18th-century Loddiges nursery near the site that housed the
largest botanical hothouses in the world.
Similar to the site, Hothouse is long and narrow and wraps itself along the
boundary with the adjacent park, London Fields. It’s a simple, single-storey
steel structure with a timber roof and represents the first phase of the project
and the foundation for a larger building.
A second storey, for which funding is almost guaranteed, will provide extra
design, studio and archive space and three live work studios for visiting
artists, including one for disabled use.
Eventually, a winter garden will incorporate toilets and showers for the site
and a large roof terrace will feature open-air events.
Free Form Arts Trust - established in 1969 - uses visionary expertise to create
“places for people” by integrating art with design and architecture to enhance
the quality of public spaces.
“We incorporate a wide variety of creative media and materials into our projects
including lighting and fibre-optics, street furniture, glass artworks, ceramic
tiled murals, paving, stone and sculptural work,” added Barbara Wheeler-Early.
It broke new ground in the late 1980s and ‘90s with artists’ hand-painted
hoardings, setting the standard for building sites and influencing developments
in London and Europe. As a result it spawned a creative industry for artists and
new challenges and opportunities.
Free Form’s building communities programme has played a key role in increasing
local involvement in housing regeneration and a revitalisation of the Hackney
area, giving its people a sense of ownership and pride. It offers architectural,
design and technical support to tenant, resident and community groups, housing
associations and local authority agencies.
Slough Borough Council to the west of London commissioned the trust to work with
young people to think about their environment – a partnership that produced the
award-winning Slough Young People’s Centre: a creative hub for a range of
activities, among them arts and social programmes, employment and training
support, advice and counselling.
Free Form’s green bottle unit - based at Hothouse - is the first of its kind
worldwide. It manufactures striking and original 100 per cent recycled glass
products such as paving blocks made from scrap TV and computer screens, tiles
and bricks.
“All kinds of glass are used - green, blue and clear,” says Ms Wheeler-Early.
“It is kiln-fired and finished to a high standard. We have transformed the waste
glass creating functional, stunning and durable surfaces.”
The unit makes glass-building products for the design and construction
industries and can customise its products for many purposes – swimming pool
surfaces, steps, pathways. Its team of designers, artists and craftspeople works
closely with manufacturers, local authorities, planners and architects.
It is committed to developing a sustainable future for urban environments and
believes that recycling glass and other products is the only way forward on a
global level, she says.
Free Form is part of the UK’s training and employment networks building the arts
into the mainstream. Its contribution to urban regeneration is acknowledged
nationally and internationally by prestigious awards, most notably two Arts
Council England Working For Cities awards, the National Art Collection Fund
Award for Visual Arts in the UK and the Guardian Jerwood prize for community
achievement.
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