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<h4>You're browser does not support iFrames - here is an exerpt of the content</h4> <a href="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/2010/06/28/the-thames-barrier-park-will-shake-you-up-a-little/">Click here to read the article in full</a> <div class="mceTemp"> <div id="attachment_599" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/P10101111.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-599" title="P1010111" src="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/P10101111-300x225.jpg" alt="Thames Barrier" width="300" height="225" /></a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Thames Barrier</p> </div> <p>On a visit to the Louvre, I found it weird and rather fascinating to go down into the vaulted places beneath the pavement, descending Tardis style through a hi tech pyramid of glass and steel. A good French joke and the Thames Barrier Park has a few – not least, because it was designed by Alain Provost, the man behind Parc Andre Citreon in Paris.</p> </div> <p>Google it and you will find weighty comment. This urban space has won many awards and provided the magnet for elegant private housing in a run-down bit of London. Up until the late 60s the land was used for heavy industry with a dye-works, chemical plant and armaments factory all found here. Raw ingredients for the new park: toxic ground and an incredible view.</p> <p><span id="more-587"></span>Getting the ground in anything like a good state for planting was the first big task: surface oils and tars had to be removed and <a title="contaminated" href="http://gardenersvoice.com/category/contaminated/">contaminated</a> water pumped from the subterranean water table. Before construction and planting, an elaborate drainage system was installed to drain surface water off the land.</p> <p>As for the setting: the Thames Barrier pulls the gaze from the moment you reach the park. Shiney armadillos which lean towards the far riverbank and to warehouses and belching factory chimneys. On a grey day, free of water sparkle, it is sullen but still manages to entrance. A classic post-industrial Thames view.</p> <p>The <a title="Masterplan" href="http://gardenersvoice.com/category/masterplan/">Masterplan</a> of the Park can be tracked down on one of those websites and jazzed up blues and reds show a dark diagonal slash across the park. A reference to the old docking past – a Cutting – 5 metres deep and concrete sided that heads the visitor straight in the direction of the Barrier climax. The way in is a complex of leaping, dancing fountains leading to undulations of yew. In the lee of their shelter, a warm micro-climate is created and long strip flower beds give rainbow colours for the summer.</p> <div id="attachment_595" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/P1010096-copy.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-595" title="miscanthus" src="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/P1010096-copy-300x225.jpg" alt="miscanthus" width="300" height="225" /></a> <p class="wp-caption-text">shimmering miscanthus</p> </div> <p>The planting includes monumental grasses. Tall and straight, they provide architectural interest in winter. Movement and sound when nothing much else is growing. Miscanthus, used a good deal, look like a rampant wheat crop on the loose. Shimmering against a backdrop of winter-black yew hedging – a foil too to cinnamon stems of bare hydrangeas. Bear in mind the light against dark for winter and spring effect. A rhythm has been created by the use of big swathes of one type of plant, carefully chosen to contrast well with their neighbour.</p> <p>The tree planting is disciplined, achieved by the use of single species in large clumps – either birch or pine. Even spacing with specimens chosen carefully to match in size. A pattern in what initially seems random adds an allure.</p> <div id="attachment_596" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/P1010100.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-596" title="birches planted in Thames barrier Park" src="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/P1010100-300x225.jpg" alt="birches planted in Thames Barrier Park" width="300" height="225" /></a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Betula jacquemontii</p> </div> <p>The use of hard <a title="landscaping" href="http://gardenersvoice.com/category/landscaping/">landscaping</a> materials is equally studied – polished granite, the waterside railings of tensioned steel are blatantly nautical, there is a sure embrace of concrete as a material. Paths converge at an airy structure on steel stilts supporting a louvered roof: the Pavilion of Remembrance complete with ships decking and concrete curved loungers looking out at the grey Thames.</p> <p>Thames Barrier Park is a rich source for ideas – but if you want to copy that Cutting, I would steer clear unless you have an old canal to dispose of or a digger man with extreme capabilities.</p> <p><!-- Social Bookmarks BEGIN --></p> <div class="social_bookmark"> <a title="Click me to see the sites." href="http://www.catharinehoward.co.uk/2010/06/28/the-thames-barrier-park-will-shake-you-up-a-little/#" onclick="$$('div.d587').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_down',{duration:2.5}) }); return false;"><strong><em>Like it? 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