The Pocket Spaces

 We have already established that the Open Spaces Study created to assist the St Albans District Plan consultation is limited in its data range and granularity.  For example, that a park or recreation ground has signage or not, will us little about visitors' engagement with the space other than a sign pointing to a feature exists.

This week I want to explore open spaces at the other end of the range; we might call them pocket spaces, but might even be micro in size.   This time the question to be asked is how useful are they within the community; what do they contribute to our individual or community lives?  We may also need to consider who these spaces belong to, how they came into existence, and do we have legal access to them? So, in no particular order ...

An orchard-style pocket space at Queen's Court, Hatfield Road, for the private use of its residents but having shared views with others using the street scene.

Queen's Court is a square of grass enclosing the three blocks of flats in Hatfield Road, with that road on the fourth side.  When young in the 1950s the grass was bordered with lavender,  adding a sensory element to the scene.  Today this has been removed but there are a few young trees. No doubt the facility still belongs to St Albans Council but the undoubted beneficiaries are the residents of the apartments; the green is a visual stimulant to the senses, but is also a incidental benefit to those passing by the main road and living in the homes opposite.

The lozenge-shaped space which widens the road frontages in Shirley Road.

Shirley Road is another shared green space overlooked by two parallel lines of homes.  It is doubtful if many residents not living in Shirley Road know of it; perhaps not even know the whereabouts of Shirley Road. The green lozenge has a small tree at one end, a telegraph pole at the other, and is punctuated by a couple of drainage covers.  As with many pocket spaces it is not large enough for children to play although residents may occasionally meet there, though their back gardens are undoubtedly more useful – something which cannot be said for any block of flats, sans gardens altogether.  What might it add to the street scene of Shirley Road?  Well, it pushes apart the frontages of the homes to enable a more open vista, and this is now further enabled by restrictions on parking along a section of road which is, effectively, a vehicle turnaround.  

An informal public open space at Burnside, occupying an especially varied vista formerly occupied
by allotments.

Burnside is an example of a planning feature which is a requirement for more modern developments, known as Public Open Space (POS).  Minimum areas of each development are kept free from homes, their garages,  gardens, parking bays and access roads. There are many examples in Jersey Farm, but this one is close to Windermere Avenue.  Burnside open space is large enough to allow for some informality and variety, in the form of hedging and a tree or two.  In this instance it recognises the history of the wider site which was previously a small corner of extensive allotments.  It also benefits, at least in this view, from the complete absence of hard materials with the exception of paths.

Triangles such as these open out the end of a residential street as in merges into a more
established country road:  Gurney Court Road at Sandpit Lane.

Gurney Court Road Triangle is an early, and largely successful, attempt to merge the hard development of a long straight street of semi-detached houses into the tree-lined wastes of Sandpit Lane, as the roadline splays to introduce a grass "field".  The trees are much younger, of course, and the bus stop is a bi-product of Sandpit Lane rather than the residential street. But as with Shirley Road the triangle opens up a welcome space which today is even more important than when it was added to the Lane in the slower paced 1930s.

Here at Camp View Road we may be offered glimpses of green.  At one time this green space was
entirely hidden, the advertising hoardings were mounted at the Camp Road frontage, with the unused ground behind.

Recently the triangular space has disappeared once more as a house now occupies the corner.

Finally, is a reminder of many micro spaces which have become part of the streetscape, and have been so for over one hundred years.  One day they are gone.  We sometimes forget that all land belongs to someone and in the case of Camp View Road Triangle it was the owner of 155 Camp Road, originally Mr Thomas Gear in the early years of the 20th century.  He acquired this little plot next to his home; and he and subsequent owners have taken the rents from advertising hoardings, but there has always been a maintained green strip with various attempts at planting, even ornamental fencing; probably the smallest and narrowest of street-side open spaces. Well, now it is no more; instead a large house has been permitted on the corner of Camp Road and Camp View Road, fully twice the size of any other of the terraced homes in the vicinity.  It became possible because the plot was privately owned.  While we were fortunate in being able to take advantage of the little green space on the corner, we had, in fact, "borrowed" this little corner patch every time we passed.

Our district's many pocket spaces (even micro spaces) are varied in how they benefit us and our little communities.  Without them our streetscapes are the poorer for us and our well being.  We don't have to grab a chair and sit in the space reading a book (although I suppose we could).  The fact the space is open, green and soft is sufficient to be joyfully good for us all!