Thames Barrier Park

THAMES BARRIER PARK

INTRODUCTION
Designed in 1995 through a competition won by Alan Provost of Groupe Signes, the designer of Park Citrone in Paris. His use of rooms organically blended into one another and the directionality and speed of pedestrian movement controlled by the layout of structural hedges, shrubs and trees is true to form. Symmetrical, modernist,clean and everything in its place an obsessives dream.

TREE PLANTATIONS

With plantations of trees to the east and west of the central axis, planted up in rows yet under planted with wild flower meadows and fleeting glimpses of seasonal bulbs. With paths cleverly cut into swathes of grass. Plantations providing directionality  The near side edge of  both East and West plantation on both sides of the central axis providing an avenue aiding the wave garden to lead you to the Thames. The north west plantation facing towards the park's concession building is incredibly atmospheric as you walk through the trees you are taken back to an advert for chocolate or bath oil.The plantations also plays a part in the change of  levels, from the futuristic tube station, the tree plantations, hedges, playing fields and bank path. Conical trained and clipped alpine trees line the embankment path with enough room for privacy to either bask in the sun or play fun games.

HEDGES
Uniformed clipped hedges are located both around the periphery of the park and down through the central
axis. Uniform box shape hedges spirit you around the perimeter path, from one towering cubed sentinel to another with herbaceous borders inter-planted in between.The wave shaped hedges gently imitating the ripples in the river.

CENTRAL AXIS
The central axis is a gated, not open "Bank Holidays" sunken garden with narrow paths and living walls  
Clipped into elongated wavy topiary-ed shapes, the hedges in  mimic the waves of old father Thames running along perpendicular to the edge of the sunken garden. Both dynamic and exciting exciting are the correct verbs to use to describe the entrance from the station  as the park entices you and drags you in. Thames Barrier  and a tower juts out in the background while what can only be described as an eye sore of a shelter, which is surplus to recquirements is at the end of the garden in the foreground, with a clever wave patterned seat.

CIRCULATION
Two main paths inhabit the park an outer perimeter path and a path encapsulating the sunken wave garden. The a fore mentioned outer path whose cubed hedges designed to spirit you along at speed from location to location which is good for strollers and joggers and the inner circular path, good for viewing down into different parts of the wave garden from above, especially good for when it is closed on bank holidays but also useful for accessing different areas of the park particularly the embankment and access points. A diagonal path leads you from the formal tree plantation next to the facilities at the North Eastern corner of the park to the South West on the embankment to an access to the ultra modern block of apartments. There is an eclectic mixture of materials of metal, cobbles, and smooth concrete at the start and finish of the wobbly unstable crossings traversing the wavy central axis which I felt was a little bit over engineered or if it meant to be a sensual thing I wholly missed the point.

VIEWS IN AND OUT

The views to the South from the park are of the Thames Barrier including the tower and a calm lapping with beach River Thames. When you look from the train you get a clear indication of the layout of the park. If
 you look to the North out of the park you see the main DLR station which resembles something out of Thuderbirds. In fact when you look the whole park is partially surrounded  by ultra modernist construction which isn't at all invasive. The whole place is quite sensitively relaxed in terms of outside intrusion but still has a futuristic spirit about the place.Thames Barrier has to win as the main focal point outside the park, where the majority of lines and rows of trees, hard scaping cleverly converge as you enter the park and the main focal point inside has to be the sunken garden which was a little obtrusive or maybe a little bit sore the garden  wasn't open to the public when I went.


It was a park that I had great difficulty in wrenching myself away from, totally soporific. It was just a nice place to be and although a great deal of it was open park land there were a lot of different areas or outdoor rooms leaving  a little something for everybody.