Category talk:Parks and open spaces in London

This category will, I fear, be only a needle in a haystack insofar as "parks and commmons" in London are concerned. The title itself raises questions:

• is it intended to cover the whole of all the London boroughs? Many of those on the list so far are in Central London, and are the obvious ones, although at least a couple are tiny spaces. Even so there are quite a few omissions, but obviously no article exists (eg Wandsworth Common).
• is it meant to cover all open spaces? It strikes me that "parks and commons" can be misinterpreted. There are a number of country parks (eg the huge Hainault Forest in Redbridge, for example). And one of those smaller entries is really only playing fields ... as are many of the others
• It may be interesting to note that the London Borough [1] I know most about has no less than 100 parks and open spaces. Multiply that by 20-odd other Boroughs and this has all the potential of a huge list!

Has the category been thought through? Peter Shearan 18:56, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

I am now searching the London stubs to see if any exist but are not included here. In doing so I discover another point which ought to be considered. As an example see the London Borough of Greenwich entry for Plumstead Common]. Looking at a map it can be clearly seen that the reason for the way that Greenwich show this as one item is that they are a "lung" for the Borough. To take them in isolation will have two effects:

• the connections between them will be lost
• we will end up with hundreds (since this is a common feature (no pun intended)) of similar cases all over London.

Surely the best plan will be in these instances to have articles for each Borough, leaving the smaller ones within the articles and cross-referencing the larger ones? Peter Shearan 09:23, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

New articles

I have started to make the above points by writing new articles:

• My article South East London Green Chain makes the point I am making here: that London is full of large areas of green space, many of which are interconnected like the Chain is: isolated articles such as Oxleas Wood did not make that connection at all. Peter Shearan 08:34, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• I have also completed three articles showing something of the London Borough's holdings of open spaces: those for Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich. It would be a great help if the other 20-odd could be similarly tackled!! Peter Shearan 14:29, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Well, I have started on the task myself (since I set it!!!). I have tried to discover, through the Borough websites, what they consider their most important open spaces and have included them in each individual article Peter Shearan 17:44, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

• I don't know if we can maintain the interconnectedness thing for all boroughs. Islington (which doesn't have an article yet), is actually one of the lowest on greenspace as a percentage of ground area, though it is surrounded by parks etc in other boroughs. (The one clear case of connection is the Parkland Way connecting Finsbury Park with Highgate Woods.) So an Islington piece would focus on its many small squares, several of which are worthy of mention, I think.

Hackney, on the other hand, is well supplied with parks and gardens, and does have a 'green route' Stoke Newington Common->Abney Park->Clissold Park->Reservoirs. You could chuck in Hackney Downs and St Augustine's churchyard at the beginning of that, but it's getting a little contrived when you do that, I think. Many of the other greenspaces are qite disconnected from each other.

I'm suggesting, really, that maybe these should have a 'Squares and Greens' section for such of these small disconnected patches that are of any interest (Canonbury Square, for example).

Oh, and I will set up the Camden and Islington pages, if you like. Tarquin Binary 14:49, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm talking nonsense there WRG to Islington. It isn't much endowed with large parks, but connectivity is maintained by the Regent's Canal, of course. Explicitly - it is down as a 'Green Route'. And I now think that the 'squares and greens' shouldn't have own entries unless they're somehow special, they can easily go under the district entry.Tarquin Binary 17:22, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Parks and spaces articles

It seems a shame to have the big lists mixed in with the individual parks. Anyone agree ? Morwen - Talk 10:44, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

No strong opinion really. Perhaps they could be grouped by a category pipe? Mrsteviec 21:09, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

I think it would be a good idea to move the Barnet and Enfield Park lists into the section before A, so they're with the other lists. I'd do it myself but I cant figure out how :/ RHB 22:38, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Sub categories

I made one sub category for the 25 or so articles i did on Croydon and named it Category:Parks and open spaces in Croydon, now there is one of these categories for every London Borough which i find pointless! These other articles hardly have anything in them and think that it's only being used so that Croydon won't stand out amongst the other boroughs. I made thecategory and template for a reason, to accomodate all the articles i made. Unless someone is willing to do this for all the other categories than i think that the small amount of articles in the categories already should be put back into this category, apart from the Croydon one which has a reasonable amount of linking articles!! Pafcool2 12:00, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Definitions

I've noted that the Borough category of some cemeteries and woods are being re-classified to fit in here... however, they are neither parks nor open spaces!! Is there a better place for them?