On April 15, 2019 the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was severely damaged in a devastating fire – and this week, five years on, its restoration will be on view for all to see and glory in. The French public’s despair at the cathedral’s damage and its hope for full restoration were on display continually over the last five years, and the city, nation and wider world were kept well informed of progress. This week is truly a celebration of determination, commitment and civic pride.
I thought about this yesterday as I walked across Hammersmith Bridge in west London which, like Notre Dame but under very different circumstances, closed to the public in April 2019. This was because of concerns about cracking in the bridge’s infrastructure.
Like Notre Dame, Hammersmith Bridge is an historical and imposing part of our public realm, projecting beauty and grandeur to all who behold it – as my photo from last evening’s sunset shows.
Unlike Notre Dame, it is also an essential element of London’s transport infrastructure, crossing the river Thames between Hammersmith and Richmond. Its closure to all motor vehicles, including buses and service vehicles, has had a profound impact on journey times in west London.
Some feel, understandably, that the reduction of vehicle use is no bad thing, and sets an example for other parts of London. Maybe so. But then you would thing that pedestrians and cyclists would have an enhanced experience crossing the bridge – and you would be quite wrong.
As the photo at top shows, the user experience of the bridge is nothing less than an assault on the senses and a lesson in infantilisation and statism. Guards telling you where you can walk, when. and how. Bollards, bollards, bollards everywhere. Unmaintained hoardings with no useful information and no less than ten organisations listed as contractors to the “improvement process”. The experience and the communications say, very loudly, “we don’t want you here and we don’t care what you think”.
Perhaps the biggest insult is the inability of the bridge’s stewards to keep people safe during repairs.
A £1m marshalling scheme is failing to protect pedestrians on Hammersmith Bridge, local MP Sarah Olney reported. She said: “Tensions on Hammersmith Bridge are reaching breaking point. After spending £1 million on security, you’d hope Hammersmith and Fulham could at least keep pedestrians safe, but near misses and verbal abuse have become an almost daily occurrence. We need security on the bridge, but merely having a few people sitting on the riverbank isn’t an effective service.”
So back to Paris and Notre Dame. We can all mutter about the French and their “grand projet” culture, or the power of the state or even the stronghold of the Catholic church as the reason why Notre Dame was fixed in five years – but the point is they did it. The same five years have delivered nothing but buck passing in the “fixing” of Hammersmith Bridge – just ask Hammersmith Bridge SOS, a local campaign group.
Notre Dame’s restoration included a visible, accessible and continually updated communications programme, and visitors to the site are presented with a timeline starting with the ancient history of the cathedral through to the fire and depicting the plans going forward. It said to all people - residents and visitors alike - we care, we have a plan, and we want you to be a part of it.
Notre Dame’s success, and Hammersmith Bridge’s failure, is about so much more than bricks and mortar. It’s about attitude, leadership and valuing the public realm.
The world’s media made a mockery of this a few years ago, with the Economist,New York Times and Guardian all lampooning the London bridges that are falling down. Nursery rhymes (and behaviour) aside, they were justified in doing so. But five years on, it’s beyond mockery. It shows a serious lack of vision and leadership, at a time when trust in our national and local institutions is eroding fast.
We had a taskforce – gone and now to be reconvened.
We have a National Infrastructure Commission, established to give impartial, expert advice on major longterm infrastructure challenges.
Our mayor says he is committed to opening the bridge to all forms of transport.
We have a London council with responsibility for the bridge’s maintenance at a stalemate over funding.
Enough already. It’s time for a single body to take on the financing, restoration and operation of this beautiful and essential public asset.
Clare Delmar
Listen to Locals
5 December 2024
