Changing London. David Robinson
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can take on and tear down.
Redesign Public Space around Children
Play streets redesignate existing space but there is also scope to redesign it from scratch, particularly in new developments. Rotterdam’s pursuit of its status as a child-friendly city required new or redesigned neighbourhoods to meet four criteria.33
(1) Child-friendly housing: specifications including a room for each child, a minimum amount of floor space, communal play areas and safe access.
(2) Public space: a set of development requirements that include, charmingly, ‘a pavement suitable for playing, 3.5 metres wide on at least one side of the street, preferably on the sunny side’ and ‘trees with seasonal variation’.
(3) Child-friendly facilities: including at least one ‘extended school’ per district, which provides services and activities for the whole community.
(4) Safe traffic routes: with a child-friendly network of streets in every neighbourhood.
Because local government in Rotterdam is highly localised, the city government offered each district a ‘scan’ of their neighbourhood, assessing compliance with the four criteria and suggesting changes that could be made, on the understanding that the district would endeavour to implement some of the ideas. Many did. The programme cost €15 million in total and ended in 2011, but its legacy lives on in actions that districts are still taking to make their areas more child friendly.
London’s mayor could use his or her planning influence to encourage and support the adoption of similar standards across the city. Progress might be incremental and it would take many years for the impact to be felt in every neighbourhood but, if adopted now, it would shape the city in favour of children for decades to come.
Ban Advertising Near Schools and Playgrounds
In 2006 the mayor of São Paulo banned all outdoor advertising. Fifteen thousand billboards were taken down, store signs were shrunk, ads were taken off buses and leafleting was forbidden. Nearly $8 million in fines helped enforce the ban. When first proposed it was met with incredulity but eight years later it is still in place, and São Paulo is not alone – Auckland, Chennai, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii and Alaska all have restrictions or bans. Paris reduced its advertising by 30 per cent and prohibited it entirely within fifty metres of a school gate.34 Grenoble has recently decided not to renew its contracts for advertising displays around the city.35
Advertising is so ubiquitous in London that it can be hard to imagine the city without it. More importantly, why would we? São Paulo billed their ban as an effort to clean up a cluttered and messy cityscape and London would benefit from this too, but there is a more important reason.
As Neal Lawson has written, ‘Adverts are not there to inform but to sell one thing: unhappiness. They work because they make us dissatisfied with what we’ve got or what we look like. They make us want the next new thing, until of course the next new thing comes along.’
Their impact on children is widely acknowledged, with restrictions in place on advertising manifestly unhealthy products like alcohol and tobacco. But even adverts for seemingly harmless products exert the pernicious effect that Neal described. By marking out those who can and cannot afford the latest trainers, advertising turns inequalities of income and wealth into stark markers of social status.
Whatever we think of this in adults it is surely unjust that children are judged by other children according to what their parents can afford. Even a small step to lessen the influence of our acquisitive culture on London’s children would bind us together from a young age. As a first step, the mayor could agree with London councils to ban all advertising near to and within schools, as has been done in Paris.
Children will be exposed to adverts on television and the internet and in the rest of the city but this measure would send a message and set a trend; our children deserve to live in communities unsullied as far as possible by the inequality for which they bear no responsibility.
(2) For Every Child: Experience of All London Has to Offer
London Sundays
Who first thought of covering themselves in silver foil, standing very still, and then moving just a little bit? And what made them think of it?
Two questions which must have occurred to many of us when wandering along the South Bank past the live musicians, magicians, jugglers, escapologists and those peculiar human statues. Not all to our taste, of course, but you don’t have to stop and it costs no more than you think it is worth.
So an afternoon’s free entertainment? Well no. The relatively short distance from, say, east London to the centre is the price of an off-peak travelcard, which can top £8 per adult: not insignificant for a family on a low income. So it is that even central London’s free delights – the museums, galleries, parks and river walks – are seldom enjoyed by many outside zone 1.
As Sally Goldsworthy has noted, ‘London is a leading cultural city with world class galleries, museums and theatres. Yet for many Londoners they remain undiscovered, more likely to be visited by tourists than a teenager from a poor background growing up in zone 4.’ For a tourist a gallery is little more than an afternoon stop but for our children these experiences can open doors and open minds: ‘For some it’s jumping the highest, running the fastest, for others it’s singing, dancing, painting, performing. For every child, a dream,’ said Ellie Robinson.
Holly Donagh reports on research from charity A New Direction, which found that over half of young people in London hadn’t been to a theatre performance, gallery or music event in the last year. When asked, young people say they want opportunities to be part of something, leading and decision making as well as simply watching; more free experiences ‘that you just come across’; to be able to find out about what is happening more easily and get support to develop talents; and to see more arts in schools.36
The mayor of Bristol has been Making Sundays Special once a month: closing the centre of the city to cars, importing climbing walls and bouncy castles and inviting street performers to take over. Last year a giant water slide constructed down a main street attracted 100,000 applicants for 360 tickets.37
London saw something similar in 2012 when the Olympics and the torch relay that preceded it brought families out into London in force, congregating in person and in spirit around one of the world’s great sporting events. London boasts some of the world’s greatest cultural institutions all year round, which – with the right support – could recreate something similar and more permanent. We could start with one Sunday each month.
These London Sundays would see a coordinated programme of free events and activities designed specifically for young tourists from within the M25, widening access to London’s art, culture, history and traditions. One Sunday could see the South Bank Centre or the Natural History Museum or the Tate lead a day’s celebration beyond their walls. Others could feature some of London’s best musicians, dancers, authors or poets.
To ensure everyone can take part, particularly in activities in the centre of the city, that tube ticket would have to be covered: a free return trip for every adult accompanied by a responsible child would remove one severe restraint on participation and open the event to every family.
The Olympics was a sporting occasion that opened eyes, inspired, drew Londoners together and briefly transformed our city. We can recreate the effect on a smaller scale, but regularly and consistently, once a month, with free tube and bus travel and some enthusiastic arts partners.
A ‘Have-a-Go Festival’
Edinburgh is world famous for its wonderful annual festival, but our participation is largely as audience members, watching others perform. Could London add to its fame by being the first to host an annual festival where we all take part? Act on the stage at the National, sing at the O2, play at Wembley, paint at the Tate, write at the British Library. Have a go at riding a bike for the first time, at learning to swim, at ballroom dancing, at healthy cooking, at being a first aider. For a couple of weeks every summer the ‘Have-a-Go Festival’ would see London’s organisations, large and small, opening their doors to the public, particularly children,