The Garden Village of Pimlico -

This walk is a development of an earlier walk which looked at the wonderful 19th century spec builder Thomas Cubitt who developed Pimlico - and it heads further west to the Chelsea borders.

Pimlico as a neighbourhood, is generally regarded as a success, despite the many changes since it was created in the 1820's by Thomas Cubitt and the Grosvenor family.

Following the urban design principle advocated by classic urban design/ architectural writers Kevin Lynch and Jan Gehl, this walk explores Pimlico's public and semi-public space to see whether the urban fabric is legible i.e. organised in a coherent pattern and if the public and semi public space is active and vibrant.

We look at a range of development both public and private and from the 1820's white stucco Thomas Cubitt developments, to early housing association schemes to modern luxury and mixed tenure developments on the Chelsea borders.

For Lynch and Gehl, commonality and legibility in public space were essential to the physical manifestation of a ‘good society’.

The 2023 LFA theme of ' In Common' seeks to find mechanisms to create, reclaim, maintain and govern, our cities to be open , accessible and safe to all, by looking specifically at what connects us.

Extracting practical examples of legibility and good active open space, understanding them and the elements they have in common, is a good start.

The walk is free but since the subject is about creating homes and communities and decent public and semi public space, it would be great if you could make a donation to the charity Shelter at https://england.shelter.org.uk/donate (cut and paste the link if necessary).

Host or Publisher Barbara Wright