Book review: Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty First Century City

If you haven’t read it already I highly recommend Anna Minton’s book Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty First Century City. Minton tracks the privatisation of public space over the last 30 years and considers some of the negative social consequences of this trend. She very cleverly ties together the model of development pioneered by the Thatcher Government in the 1980s with the development of Canary Wharf in London’s Dockland, firmly established by New Labour through Housing Market Renewal and continued by the current Coalition government with the Olympic park. All these developments are based on a model of regeneration that is dependent upon increased property values and have led to the erosion of public space in favour of privately managed streets and squares.  The streets maybe clean, but you can't protest in them, skateboard, tie up your bike or even take a photograph. The consequences of these developments are serious because as Minton says ‘who controls the roads and streets is enormously important to how cities function. Today there has been no public debate about selling off the streets at all.’

[image via Private Public Space]

The scary thing is that many of these regeneration projects have been made in the hope that wealth will trickle down to the poorest. The Docklands developments haven’t done much for the poor communities who live there. In fact, as Minton observes, Canary Wharf and the Excel centre are cut off from their surroundings and purposefully inaccessible on foot.  This rings true with my experience too. Quite recently I went on a tour of Newham’s most successful regeneration projects. I asked the council officer showing us round what benefits had been assured for the people living on the housing estate immediately adjacent to Excel. He just shrugged and said “they are hopeless.”