A school of horticulture was set up in the park to raise standards
Peace Pagoda
were broken and dreary. Evans Concrete and Hilary Taylor Landscape Associates studied the surviving structures. Over the years the concrete had aged to subtle tones of grey-blue and dusty brown overlaid with the festival colours of buff, pink and yellow. Therefore, when developing new concrete copings and paving, which had to work with the salvaged originals, it was essential to capture something of this delicacy. To this end, Mountsorrel black granite and fines were used with grey cement to make copings for the garden walls and steps. Paving units were cast using a mix containing white cement, silver sand, black granite aggregate and a touch of light red pigment. Narrow kerbs were cast with Northampton Pioneer Shardlow fines in grey cement that was retarded and slightly exposed.
Restored embankment wall quality.
The original plans for the promenade wall did not consider children or the disabled and, with current health and safety legislation, the majority of the wall had to be redesigned so children and people in wheelchairs could see over and enjoy the river views, but also be safe. Another issue was deciding how to
restore the Festival Gardens that, back in the 1950s, had been hastily and poorly built as their longevity was not predicted. As a direct result of this poor construction, by the 1990s, the remains of the walls, coping, paving and pools
14 Lack of skills
Another problem, both during and post restoration, was the lack of skilled labour to maintain the park and its features. WBC consider this to be a direct result of competitive tendering as the company who won the contract were based in Cambridge. This meant that not only were the labour force commuting to Battersea on a daily basis but there was little pride in their work as they were not local people. In effect, it was ‘just a job’. The contractors were dismissed and the maintenance brought in-house. Jennifer Ullman noted that very few of their own staff were qualified, and those that were suitably experienced were
nearing retiring age. So, a school of horticulture was set up in the park to raise standards, and it is now council policy for all supervisors to have a minimum of an NVQ level 2 certificate. The two most skilled workers on the council staff were given the maintenance of the subtropical gardens. However, in the first winter, problems occurred as to how the non-native and fragile plants should be protected from an English winter. Experts at nearby Kew Gardens were consulted and their help and experience proved invaluable. Over-wintering tender plants is a time consuming process, but the two staff members relished the challenge and are now skilled in ensuring that, come spring, the plants in the subtropical garden, the rose garden and the herb garden will all be in prime condition. During the restoration of the Festival
Gardens, the now dismissed contractors had planted trees too close together, and these had to be moved or thinned out. In addition, new beds were created without much thought of where visitors may decide to take a short cut. A lot of the planting was uninspiring, for example, ferns and lavender in the same beds.
The future
Over the six and a half year restoration Wandsworth Borough Council have learned some important lessons, not least that, if you want a job doing well, do it yourself. By bringing the restoration back under council control they have staved off a possible disaster, both aesthetically
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138