These objectives have led to the following things to be completed:
- 281 houses demolished releasing land for environmental improvements, new housing and commercial developments
- 340 new homes built, widening housing choice in the area
- 341 private dwellings renovated
- The fitting of free energy saving measures
- The construction of a new primary school with eleven classrooms and a community nursery
- The installation of traffic calming measures
- The launch of initiatives designed to make Hyde a safer place to shop with children
- The landscaping of derelict industrial land
- The construction of new industrial units, creating over 90 jobs
- Improvements to shop fronts and commercial premises
- Improvements to the outside market
- The planting of over 12,000 plants, leading Hyde to win best North West town in the 1997 Britain in Bloom contest
Regeneration has been occurring everywhere in London at the Docklands for example to boost this diminishing area. London is growing due to regeneration except the south east quarter of London. This is the missing link the areas which have been proposed for regeneration are Vauxhall, Waterloo, London Bridge and Elephant and Castle. It has been consider by many planners to now be a dead heart, as it does not give of any positive vibes. The planners aim to give the Elephant and Castle a new heart so it can be an attractive area. They will create a new centre allowing green routes, retailing, transport, art and culture, residential, organic parks, public art and to increase pedestrian activity. These all are very important but it has been an increased government move to Pedestrianise in places such as Trafalgar Square and now in Elephant and Castle. This is to assure safety and decrease pollution levels within the city areas and allow more mobility.
The population of this region is not published but said to be approximately 210,000 people within Southwark. The individual wards contain approximately 20,000 people so the population of Elephant and Castle local community is very large.
The political stance in the area is the constituency of North Southwark and Bermondsey which is run by the Liberal Democrats and has been for a long period with Simon Hughes as the Member of Parliament for that constituency.
The racial mix in the area is very diverse with many races and cultures living in the same area. The age is also very diverse and is spread across the generations with many extended families in the area relying on one another.
The area I have chosen for my inquiry has gone through many stages of regeneration and has a great history as very important nodal point in London. It has now become ripe for regeneration, as it was in the 1700’s when it was a village green with little significance to the local area except to unite locals. It also was located on a major route for religious pilgrimages from Winchester to London as it was linked to the Newington causeway the only crossing of the Thames at this time in London. In the 1900’s the railway was dominating the area as the technology was improving, increasing the mobility in the area allowing more people to locate there. In the 1990’s up to the present date it has become a traffic-dominated centre with to large roundabouts providing a major through way to the south of England. The major roads lead to places such as Winchester, Dover and Canterbury via major roads such as the A2 and the A3. It is one of the busiest junctions for routes out of London. It is now a convergence for bridge routes as it makes access to the bridges easier. These bridges are London, Westminster, Lambeth, Waterloo, Southwark and Blackfriars.
The strategy of the planners for the framework has concentrated on energy, waste, water, and drainage, pedestrian and cycles movement and a biodiversity strategy. These will all allow an improvement of the area. The planners are aiming to create attractive new buildings to boost the area. High rise with built in ecology to take a way the ugliness of skyscrapers so, roof top gardens. They also intend to update the transport interchanges. The retailing will be diversified to increase variety and increase the uses and amenities in the area. A priority of the planners is to create a new lifestyle experience for the local people. A focus point for the community would be the art and culture that will be injected into the area.
The Elephant and castle site will offer young people more space to spend some of the most important years of their lives. Increased leisure to spend their large amounts of energy they have at a young age. Increased Culture will create a better a better foundation for the youth of today. They can also benefit from the increased retailing as more variety for all. The increased retailing will allow more opportunities for jobs to spend some of their spare time.
The Elephant and Castle’s Holistic approach is informed by the people’s vision of providing individual opportunity, creating employment, improving health and education and enhancing living standards. In doing this there is some historical monuments or buildings of interest that cannot be removed such as the tabernacle which is a historical landmark. The Imperial War Museum is also with in the Elephant and Castle area and is a building of interest and not to be changed. Two educational facilities that are also in the area are the South Bank University and the London College of Printing so these aspects need to be taken in to consideration during regeneration of the area.
E
D
W
A
R
D
How to create the new vision
Regeneration Proposals
- 3000 retail and leisure jobs by 2007.
- 5000 construction jobs over 7 years.
- Enhanced Social Infrastructure to include the creation of new community facilities and enhanced and expanded existing provision.
- Totally comprehensive local labour intiative, including construction training, jobs brokerage and education bursaries.
- A strategy for education life long learning- a listening and learrning network investing in schools, youth support, an Elephant and Castle learning card.
- A centre of excellance for Information Technology.
- Affordable work / live units and business incubator units for existing and new businesses.
- A Tecnology Transfer centre to support local business and community enterprise.
- A raft of business support intiative to enable local businesses to reap the benefits of the development programme, in addition to specific support to the retail and creative industries.
- Enviromental improvements in parternership with the community to provide community allotments, garden squares, enhanced play facilities and community gyms.
- Comprehensive programme of community development to empowerr local people to take up the opportunities created at Elephant and Castle – community intranet, customised training to allow the full participation of all sectors of the community in the delivery of the regenration programme.
- Opportunities for new and existing local businesses to win contracts to deliver all aspects of the Regeneration Action Plan.
Route of Enquiry
The inquiry will try to stay on a number of aims set out in this section. The aims of the investigation are:
- The area was right for redevelopment as indicators are present.
- Of a number of proposals the choice of the Foster proposals, has a strong justification and relevance.
- The redevelopment will produce dramatic spatial changes.
- The redevelopment is bound to impact on other aspects of local geography.
These aims should help to give the backbone to this inquiry and confine the barriers to which it should extend. The bulk of my coursework will be interpretation and under standing evidence found important needs of geographers is to the observe, analyse and interpret evidence.
Methods of data collection
It is a very difficult program for the coursework with constraints on time. Following the hypothesis guidelines the table below will show the data collection methods used to carry out my investigations.
Primary data explained
Enviromental index- this includes a number of aspects of the area. These are the perception of the area, problems that might occur in the area, cleanliness of the area. This will be done by using evidence to back up the findings. A litter count will be a significant contributor to the evidence this will be done at every lamp post starting from oneside of the Elephant and Castle to the other.
Questionaire- The questionaire for primary data looked particularly at the views of the public in the area of Elephant and Castle. This form of evidence helps to give a majourity view on the case, and allows geographers to see how the people feel on issues and can be a very powerful tool to use. The questions chosen have to be easily understood and be directly related with the inquiry. Also interviews with people directly involved with project.
Photographs- these help as it is enforcing evidence to give good proof to the inquiry and allow clear pictures of the area to be seen. Although problems can occur as I found when taking a picture of the traffic. A man confronted me about why I was taking a picture of him and I had to explain what I was doing.
Architectral Data- This will show my interpretation of the area by its age and type of buildings found in the area along with their condition.
Land Use Maps- this contains a variety of maps which help to demonstrate the area and how the land is used. The types of maps will be ward maps, street maps and land use maps.
Traffic Surveys- This includes monitoring of majour route ways for what vehicles pass lorrys, cars, motorbikes, buses or emergency vehicles. Also pedestrian counts will will be incorporated into this evidence showing the number of pedestrian using a part of the area at particular times. This will be done from a numbwer of points at different times to give variations and wider range of data.
