Green InfrastructureTyers Street as part of a chain of public green spaces from Battersea to the South Bank

Tyers Street Linear Park

Lambeth High StRec. Ground

Archbishop’sPark

Lambeth Walk

Pedlars Park

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens(née Spring Gardens)

Vauxhall Park

Larkhall Park

Battersea Park

[Future] VNEBLinear Park

A community-led project in Vauxhall, Lambeth

A Grand Walk for Vauxhall

The Royal Pleasure Gardens in Vauxhall entertained visitors for over 200

years, reaching the height of their popularity in the early 1800s, with 20,000

people visiting on one night in 1826.

Under the management of Jonathan Tyers, the Gardens grew into

an extraordinary enterprise, a cradle of landscape, modern painting,

architecture, and music. Innovative lighting, fountains and fireworks, in an

Eden-like atmosphere, combined to create one of the most complex and

profitable business ventures of the eighteenth century in Britain. Patronised

by all levels of society, “from royal dukes to penurious servants”1, the

gardens were crucial to the cultural and fashionable life of the country.

One of the most spectacular features of the original gardens was the Grand

Walk, “a stately avenue of elm trees, nine hundred feet long and thirty feet

wide” 2, depicted by Canaletto in 1751.

Located just one mile from the Houses of Parliament, the Gardens remain

a crucial, but increasingly contested, green space in the heart of London.

Now, the local residential community, VGERTA, together with architects

DSDHA and with the support of local Councillors, are pioneering a proposal

to re-imagine a ‘grand walk’ for the 21st Century for one of its least used,

but potentially significant streets. Through a consultative approach,

innovative landscape design, lighting, planting and a programme of events,

Tyers Street will be re-purposed as a Linear Park, forming a key connection

in the chain of green spaces that have the potential to connect the wider

urban developments of Nine Elms and Vauxhall Gardens, from Battersea

Park to the South Bank and Jubilee Gardens.

From royal pleasure garden, to slum housing, to urban park, the site has

reflected society’s changing attitude towards urban life. Vauxhall Pleasure

Gardens may have long since disappeared but its legacy remains and this

community-led regeneration project intends to reflect this illustrious history

and take it into the next century.

1 David Coke and Alan Borg, Vauxhall Gardens: A History, 2011

2 The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens: A detailed History, www.vauxhallandkennington.org.uk

HL111

VAUXHALL PLEASURE GARDENS

Glasshouse Walk

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Jonathan Street

Black Prince Road

Kennington Lane

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PEDLARS PARK

top:

View of the Grand Walk, Vauxhall Gardens, by Canaletto, 1751

above:

View of the Orchestra, Thomas Rowlandson, 1785

The ‘Grand Walk’Proposed view looking north along Tyers Street

ContextBird’s-eye view of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens showing the location of Tyers Street

MasterplanTyers Street Linear Park as part of a wider framework plan for Vauxhall

1. Identification of existing

conditions, potentials and

constraints

2. Integration of existing green

spaces as public or visual

amenity

3. Development of placemaking

strategy that responds to use,

access requirements and

environment to build identity

City FarmView looking north from Kennington Lane towards Vauxhall City Farm, existing and proposed

PlayspaceLaud Street playground (off Tyers Street), existing and proposed view looking east

AllotmentsView looking north towards junction with Jonathan Street adjacent to allotments, existing and proposed

Tyers Street Linear Park

Jonathan Street

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Arne House

Arrowsmith House

HaymansPoint

CoverleyPoint

Positive frontage

Negative frontage

Existing green space

Potential extent of park

Key:

Existing access

Active entrance

Access route

Gathering space

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Pedlars Park

Cabinet Gallery - construction due 2012-13

New entrance to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens Multi-use games area (MUGA)

Tea House Theatre / Cafe

Existing allotments extended and enhanced

Green roofs installed to garage roofs to enhance biodiversity and to enforce green link between Tyers Street and Pedlars Park

Future redevelopment of arches for commerce and leisure

Future redevelopment of arches for commerce and leisure to an-imate Pedlars Park and to gen-erate income for maintenance

Tyers Street is a one-way road connecting Kennington Lane to Black Prince Road. The highway is oversized, providing enough width for two lanes of traffic and parking on either side. Resident parking is provided below grade withing the Vauxhall Gardens Estate, so street parking is rarely used. Tyers Street, therefore, provides an opportunity to enahnce the public realm offer in this area of central London by providing a green link between existing (but under utilised) urban parks.

Planting and high-quality mate-rials used to create a variety of different public spaces

Existing communal greenspace enhanced to provide visual amenity

Existing community buildings - such as the City Farm - provide activity along the route & animate the public realm