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The power of the pocket park
Within cities, pocket parks provide welcome open spaces that might otherwise be difficult to stitch into the urban grain. For residents they provide a valuable, but often overlooked, contribution to the ‘landscape of housing’. These small, human-scale spaces contribute to a city’s green infrastructure. The Mayor of London recognised their importance with the 2013–15 ‘Pocket Parks’ initiative, which helped create over 100 community-led sites across London.
‘Poetry of odds and ends’ is how landscape architect Sir Peter Shepheard (1913–2002, PPLI) described the nature of our profession’s work within the city context. A sentiment germane to pocket parks, created on odd little sites dotted around, often opportunistic and unprogrammed by town planners. This article considers two important modernist pocket parks – Paley Park in New York City, reputedly the world’s most influential pocket park, and lesser-known Crabtree Fields in central London.
…as a New Yorker, I have long been convinced that, in the midst of all this building, we ought to set aside occasional spots of open space where our residents and visitors can sit and enjoy themselves as they pause in their day’s activities.
Paley Park was created by philanthropist William S. Paley, founder of CBS TV. He commissioned the southwest-facing park in memory of his father, stating that ‘…as a New Yorker, I have long been convinced that, in the midst of all this building, we ought to set aside occasional spots of open space where our residents and visitors can sit and enjoy themselves as they pause in their day’s activities.’³ Paley had been introduced to the concept of vest pocket parks (local moniker) by landscape architect Robert Zion (1921–2000, FASLA) of Zion & Breen Associates, when the practice had proposed the idea at a Parks Association of New York exhibition, New York Parks for New York, held in 1963 at the Architectural League of New York.
Paley engaged Zion to create the tiny 100ft deep by 42ft wide (30.5m × 12.8m) park which opened to the public in 1967 and cost, including site purchase, around $1,000,000. The crisp geometric design, set back and slightly elevated from the street and surrounded by tall buildings, has firm modernist roots, yet is essentially based on that most historic garden form – the courtyard. It is in effect a three-sided court-garden.
The focus of the granite sett, paved space is a 20ft-high (6m) water-wall that stretches across the back of the site. The crashing sound of water quells traffic noise from adjacent East 53rd Street and cools the ambient air temperature. Side walls are clad in ivy and a grid of 12 honey locust trees (Gleditsia triacanthos) provide light summer shade. The space is furnished with Bertoia wire-mesh chairs and Saarinen marble-topped tables. A vestibule is formed by five further Gleditsia planted on the adjacent footway. Pops of seasonal colour, cultivated in 20 modernist semi-circular containers, energise the tranquil scene, from yellow tulips in spring to autumnal chrysanthemums. A pair of discreet gatehouses provide a drinks kiosk and park-keeper’s office. The garden is privately owned (Greenpark Foundation), managed and gated. However, it’s open daily and freely to the public (local residents, workers and tourists), except national holidays.
In comparison, Crabtree Fields, north of Oxford Street in London’s Fitzrovia, is a publicly owned and managed pocket park. Its community-led evolution is quite distinct from Paley Park’s. Eponymously linked to a former local orchard, the site was subsequently developed into Georgian terraces. These were destroyed in WW2 and the bombsite became a dry and roughly surfaced open-air carpark, eventually acquired by National Car Parks in 1983.
NCP sought planning permission to erect a four-storey office block and houses on the small 0.3 acre site. A spirited community campaign in opposition ensued. In an area deficient in open space they demanded a public ‘green’ open space instead. Following a protracted planning process (initial approval recommendation, then refusal and appeal) the site was eventually subject to a compulsory purchase order (CPO) and the Greater London Council (GLC) secured it for over £900,000, to be developed as a pocket park. The CPO enquiry inspector stated that ‘The suitability of the site for use as a small local park cannot be seriously challenged.’
The project was allocated to GLC landscape architect Gill Wynne-Williams, who created a temporary space using painted timber screens, benches and gravel surface, while she worked with the local community to develop the final scheme.⁶ In a race against imminent GLC dissolution, the park opened in 1986 costing a modest £58,000.
Crabtree Fields is west of bustling Tottenham Court Road. Like Paley Park, it is a three-sided courtyard garden – the west wall formed by the rear of Charlotte Street restaurants, the south wall that of a contemporary apartment block. The looser northern boundary is created by pedestrianised Colville Place, with its mostly Georgian houses and container ‘front gardens’. Whitfield Street forms the eastern flank, where, like Paley Park, a vestibule, provided by a double row of plane trees (Platanus × hispanica), extends the park.
Beyond this, a geometric sequence of visually connected interlocking square and rectangular garden-rooms unfold – a lawn area, framed by mixed shrub planting and clipped beech hedges; a contemplative gravel-court planted with a grid of nine soaring common pear trees (Pyrus communis); and at the back of the site a children’s play area. The defining feature is a wide black timber post and trellis pergola that strikes a north–south axis between the garden rooms. Clad in climbing plants with benches below, it too is a defined room, providing necessary shade. The 1980s design included a number of now essential climate-resilient strategies, such as rain gardens, permeable surfaces and shade. It is an unexpected biodiverse oasis in contrast to the surrounding city, and a variety of insect, bird and mammal species have been recorded there.⁷ The park, one of the last executed by the GLC, is remarkably intact and with its distinctive late-modernist spatial arrangement, planting and hard materials, is a rare survivor of a type created towards the end of Britain’s post-war reconstruction period. It partners well with 1 Colville Place, the 1964 modernist Grade II house by Max Neufeld, which overlooks it.
The 1980s design included a number of now essential climate-resilient strategies, such as rain gardens, permeable surfaces and shade. It is an unexpected biodiverse oasis in contrast to the surrounding city, and a variety of insect, bird and mammal species have been recorded there.
However, the site now faces a number of issues – such as overgrown vegetation, missing play equipment, benches, and antisocial behaviour –which places the original design at risk. Site manager, Camden Council, is currently engaging with local residents and businesses to explore how to overcome these matters. In doing so it is important that any renovation understands the park’s special heritage value and that the most significant elements, such as the pergola and garden rooms, are sympathetically respected, so that the park, forged by such energetic community effort, can continue to contribute positively to the quality of life. Local residents have submitted a listing application to Historic England for inclusion of Crabtree Fields on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England – a move supported by the Twentieth Century Society. Long may the ‘poetry of odds and ends’ continue.
Karen Fitzsimon is a London-based chartered landscape architect, garden historian and writer. Her research specialism is post-war designed landscapes.
