European oak benches for Victoria Park regeneration, London

Sector

Public realm

Project type

Refurbishment

Services provided

Site survey
Planning advice
Design
Project management
Installation

Year completed

2012

Project location

London

Client

Tower Hamlets Borough Council

Consultant

LDA Design Consulting LLP

Products used

Bespoke X-shape bench, bespoke curved bench

Context

Bespoke seats and benches manufactured by Branson Leisure contributed to the £12m regeneration of the historic Victoria Park in Lodo.

Challenge

Victoria Park is one of London’s most important historic parks and its oldest public park, having been in use for nearly 170 years for recreation, sports, play and relaxation.

The ambitious £12m regeneration scheme was to see the park in Bow restored to its former glory ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The regeneration was funded by Tower Hamlets Council, with additional support of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) under the Parks for People programme. This included the restoration of the Burdett-Coutts fountain, the building of a new community facility and café in the east of the park, the recreation of the Chinese pagoda in the West Lake and major improvements to the play areas.

LDA Design’s masterplan for the park included the redesign the central area of the eastern side, with new construction, as well as the rejuvenation of historic features ranging from the late 1800s to the 1970s and 80s. LDA wanted the redeveloped park to appeal to as broad a range of users as possible.

Two stone parapets are situated in the east of the park that were once part of old London bridge, and were brought to the park in 1860. The seating that had been installed in them had rotted away and the brief was to replace this by fixing new seating into the holes that remained in the stonework.

A rustic X-shaped bench situated under a shelter in the west of the park had also fallen into disrepair and needed to be reproduced.

Solution

Work began on the refurbishment of the park in January 2011 and was completed in April 2012. Branson worked with LDA on the planning and design phases of the project.

Branson collaborated with Landscape Architect Chris Arscott at LDA, working on the design development of the parapet seating and the X-shaped bench from concept drawings. The designs were also developed to give more modern, comfortable proportions, as opposed to an exact historic replica.

Branson manufactured the parapet seating to precise dimensions, allowing it to be installed level on an uneven site that included a front-to-back fall of 100mm.

Branson helped to tweak the design of the X-shaped bench to improve vandal resistance, and strength and aesthetics, and to prevent rubbish and dirt from building up in back-to-back seating joints.