Fleet Valley Pocket Park was designed as a full SuDS feature, to include tree pits for water storage.
Completed in 2022, Fleet Valley Pocket Park is located above the historic path of the River Fleet, which once meandered through Camden from Hampstead Heath to the River Thames. Previously an underutilised space of concrete paving slabs, the Council transformed it into a versatile pocket park, offering residents a serene urban oasis to relax, socialise, or simply enjoy nature.
The park is located near to Mount Pleasant, a densely built-up street, northwest of Clerkenwell, bordering Islington, home to the London Borough of Camden. The site was identified in Camden’s Local Plan as lacking nature and open space. The Holborn and Covent Garden ward, with its low canopy cover, faces significant climate change risks like heat and flooding, and is categorised as high-risk by the Greater London Authority Climate Risk Map. Surrounded by high-density housing with limited balcony space, the area critically needed accessible open space. Historically, it also suffered from anti-social behavior and was a fly-tipping hotspot.
To tackle these issues, Camden Council engaged the community in 2019, collaborating with the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Forum to set design priorities. These included creating a green, biodiverse space, incidental play areas, a relaxing environment, and a robust landscape, while addressing topography, reducing anti-social behaviour, and align with the neighbourhood plan’s aspirations.
Project
Location
Contractor
Landscape Architect
Fleet Valley Pocket Park was designed as a full SuDS feature, to include tree pits for water storage.
Completed in 2022, Fleet Valley Pocket Park is located above the historic path of the River Fleet, which once meandered through Camden from Hampstead Heath to the River Thames. Previously an underutilised space of concrete paving slabs, the Council transformed it into a versatile pocket park, offering residents a serene urban oasis to relax, socialise, or simply enjoy nature.
The park is located near to Mount Pleasant, a densely built-up street, northwest of Clerkenwell, bordering Islington, home to the London Borough of Camden. The site was identified in Camden’s Local Plan as lacking nature and open space. The Holborn and Covent Garden ward, with its low canopy cover, faces significant climate change risks like heat and flooding, and is categorised as high-risk by the Greater London Authority Climate Risk Map. Surrounded by high-density housing with limited balcony space, the area critically needed accessible open space. Historically, it also suffered from anti-social behavior and was a fly-tipping hotspot.
To tackle these issues, Camden Council engaged the community in 2019, collaborating with the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Forum to set design priorities. These included creating a green, biodiverse space, incidental play areas, a relaxing environment, and a robust landscape, while addressing topography, reducing anti-social behaviour, and align with the neighbourhood plan’s aspirations.
Project
Location
Contractor
Landscape Architect
Project
Location
Contractor
Landscape Architect
Mount Pleasant in particular lies in one of Camden Councils’ critical drainage areas and surrounding flood risk zones of Farringdon. Following the success of another nearby park, it was decided to construct a pocket park close to Farringdon Road to help alleviate pressure on the nearby combined sewer.
The SuDS pocket park replaces previously impermeable paving, designed to provide a wealth of vegetation, enabling a biodiverse haven, capturing surface water and providing water storage volume to the capacity of 48m3 which is now avoiding the sewer network.
Working with Land Use Consultants, and the client, GreenBlue Urban supported designs as there were many underground constraints, including avoiding the main water pipe and nearby sewer. GreenBlue also supported a root management strategy, being that the nature-based solutions had to be designed within the first meter of the garden.
Products included RootSpace 600, 1 cell deep, Ribbed Root Barrier again at 600mm deep for root guidance, additional flat barrier for the protection of the new surrounding paving, ArborCell to provide an extra layer on attenuation, ArborGuy, guying for the 4 planted trees, AborVents to enhance the aeration through to the ArborCell Hydro Soil, fed by Mycorrhiza and irrigation with RootRain Urbans.
The whole package includes, load bearing drainage, mesh and hessian all designed as the perfect rain garden solution, with products manufactured in the UK.
Mount Pleasant in particular lies in one of Camden Councils’ critical drainage areas and surrounding flood risk zones of Farringdon. Following the success of another nearby park, it was decided to construct a pocket park close to Farringdon Road to help alleviate pressure on the nearby combined sewer.
The SuDS pocket park replaces previously impermeable paving, designed to provide a wealth of vegetation, enabling a biodiverse haven, capturing surface water and providing water storage volume to the capacity of 48m3 which is now avoiding the sewer network.
Working with Land Use Consultants, and the client, GreenBlue Urban supported designs as there were many underground constraints, including avoiding the main water pipe and nearby sewer. GreenBlue also supported a root management strategy, being that the nature-based solutions had to be designed within the first meter of the garden.
Products included RootSpace 600, 1 cell deep, Ribbed Root Barrier again at 600mm deep for root guidance, additional flat barrier for the protection of the new surrounding paving, ArborCell to provide an extra layer on attenuation, ArborGuy, guying for the 4 planted trees, AborVents to enhance the aeration through to the ArborCell Hydro Soil, fed by Mycorrhiza and irrigation with RootRain Urbans.
The whole package includes, load bearing drainage, mesh and hessian all designed as the perfect rain garden solution, with products manufactured in the UK.
Being that the project was supported and funded by Thames Water, working alongside Camden Council and their Surface Water Programme, LUC as designers, Volker Highways for civil installation and IdVerde for Soft landscaping.
The local community played a significant role in developing the pocket park, with the Neighbourhood Forum offering feedback and oversight throughout the project. They contributed to key aspects, including naming the site Fleet Valley Pocket Park to give it a new identity. Additionally, the community left their mark on the final design by providing the content for the engraved poem on the brick explorer path. GreenBlue Urban is proud to have been collaborative support from design to installation to a valued area that will enable public amenities, provide health, well-being and enhanced social cohesion.
Being that the project was supported and funded by Thames Water, working alongside Camden Council and their Surface Water Programme, LUC as designers, Volker Highways for civil installation and IdVerde for Soft landscaping.
The local community played a significant role in developing the pocket park, with the Neighbourhood Forum offering feedback and oversight throughout the project. They contributed to key aspects, including naming the site Fleet Valley Pocket Park to give it a new identity. Additionally, the community left their mark on the final design by providing the content for the engraved poem on the brick explorer path. GreenBlue Urban is proud to have been collaborative support from design to installation to a valued area that will enable public amenities, provide health, well-being and enhanced social cohesion.
