London’s green spaces in the late twentieth century: the rise and decline of municipal policies

In 2008, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced a funding competition for the restoration of 47 London parks. Londoners voted Burgess Park (Southwark) as the park that needed the money most. The park which had been completed in the late 1990s was awarded £2 million in March 2009 while 10 other parks received £400,000 each.1 In addition, Southwark Council gave £6 million for the restoration of Burgess Park. With these sums, the park underwent a massive improvement process and was reopened in 2012.2 Why did it need restoration so soon after completion? To answer this question and to understand the contemporary condition and use of public green spaces in London, we have to study their development from the 1940s to the late 1990s.