London oasis of tranquillity

[BoRED S2upid]

£175million pound oasis of tranquility that is. You lucky Londoners, a bit of green on your walk to work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-305465...

[LordGrover]

Seven million crossings a year and £175,000,000 is only £1 per crossing for 25 years.
It'll look nice though.

[hornetrider]

It'll be chaos - mark my words. Paths too narrow, footfall too high, it'll be an overcrowded jostling, bustling thoroughfare.

Oasis my arse.

[p1esk]

It's nice to find there is no shortage of cash, in which case is there any chance of existing public assets like pavements and roads being restored to a decent condition?

[Digga]

A poor facsimile of nature. Where's the poo?

We live on an AONB and I never cease to be amused by Mrs Digga's earnest questioning of townie friends who, arriving in nice, pristine footwear, ask to be taken out for a walk to spot the local wildlife: "Will you be alright in those or do you want to borrow some boots, because there's ten different types of st out there?"

[BoRED S2upid]

£175mill for a bridge seems a generous sum to me. I imagine it will come in several million under budget and on time.

[Sheets Tabuer]

Surprised they didn't go with a pontoon bridge planted with trees and a zip line so stressed workers can waft through the tree tops on the way to work.

[LordGrover]

Bugger Boris!
Vote for Sheets Tabuer!

[robbieduncan]

hornetrider said:

It'll be chaos - mark my words. Paths too narrow, footfall too high, it'll be an overcrowded jostling, bustling thoroughfare.

Oasis my arse.

It's not free. They are going to limit the number of people on the bridge at any time. It'll be deserted as only tourists will be willing to pay!

[hornetrider]

robbieduncan said:

It's not free. They are going to limit the number of people on the bridge at any time. It'll be deserted as only tourists will be willing to pay!

Erm. 7 million trips a year is 20,000 people a day. On a bridge.

[allergictocheese]

It'll look lovely amongst the Nikon and Canon lenses belonging to the inevitable crowds of Japanese tourists.

[Magog]

It's a lovely idea... and that's what it should have remained.

[Axionknight]

BoRED S2upid said:

£175mill for a bridge seems a generous sum to me. I imagine it will come in several million under budget and on time.

[gibbon]

hornetrider said:

Erm. 7 million trips a year is 20,000 people a day. On a bridge.

Which is 14 people a minute.

Even if you assume the full 7 million trips happen during a primary 12 hour period, thats still obviously under 30 people a minute.

[hornetrider]

gibbon said:

Which is 14 people a minute.

Even if you assume the full 7 million trips happen during a primary 12 hour period, thats still obviously under 30 people a minute.

I'll revisit the thread when it's built and say I told you so.

[sjg]

Neither Waterloo or Blackfriars bridges are excessively crowded with pedestrians at peak times, and a new bridge would only take some of that foot traffic.

Does all seem a bit silly though, that whole stretch is well served by bridges already.

[essayer]

Wait, what ? You'll have to pay to cross?

[Blib]

Bring it on. We need a garden bridge and we have nearly everything else.

[Jasandjules]

Good to see rather than the cutbacks and lack of money we thought we had, in fact we have over one hundred million quid to p**s away on this.

[rpguk]

hornetrider said:

It'll be chaos - mark my words. Paths too narrow, footfall too high, it'll be an overcrowded jostling, bustling thoroughfare.

Oasis my arse.

The renderings that have been used to illustrate most of the new pieces are from very charitable angles. From the South Bank it looks great. However like you say, it's very narrow in practice.

Magog said:

It's a lovely idea... and that's what it should have remained.

Agreed, I thought it was wonderful at first. However it's becoming clear that the practicalities doesn't stack up as promised. The idea of it being privately funded seems to have been forgotten. There is no need for a crossing there, it won't be a new green space, it'll be a bridge with a few planters on it.

The whole thing seems to be a bit of a vanity project for Joanna Lumley, Hetherwick and Boris.

Personally I think that turning Southwark Bridge into a 'garden bridge' would be a cheaper and more effective solution if we want to go down this route.