Managing Landscape

People, no matter where they are, have to engage with their landscape. Even nomads change the land around them in one way or another- there's just no escaping it. The way a landscape is altered is highly indicative of cultural values. If I may, I'm going to direct you to two features near Guildhall. The first is the landscaping directly outside of the Guildhall itself.

 That lovely little marsh there is right outside of this:

Interesting, I think. On one hand, you have this clean, crisp white building with its neogothic face and vertical lines. Outside of it, you have this sprawling water garden with paved paths and black marble. The organic forms of the plants and the anatine visitors combined with the peaceful curves of the water provide a welcome contrast to the Guildhall area's neoclassical and neogothic architecture.

They like to do this in London. They build spires in the middle of the street that look like subterranean churches. I have no idea how or why they do this, but they do.

I think by demonstrating this, I'm effectively explaining why London's greenspace is so vital to its continued existence. Humans are a complex bunch. We need variety and we also need fresh air. The greenspaces are natural havens in an industrial city. And London, thanks to lessons from the early years of the Industrial Revolution, has learned very much why places where the air can purify are important. Do you guys know about peppered moths?

I didn't take this picture- the BBC did. This is a representation of the light and melanistic forms of the peppered moth. Before the Industrial Revolution, the light form was the most common, with less than one percent of moths showing melanism. But during the Industrial Revolution, the belching factory smoke stained everything dark. The melanistic moths rose in frequency until they outnumbered the light moths. This trend continued until 1962, when Britain reported the first decline of the dark moths in about a hundred years. This has happened in America as well, separately from the European moths. As well as being an excellent example of forced selection and microevolution, it's a very visible warning of the dangers of damaging the landscape with pollutants. Urban greenspace represents humanity's understanding of these issues, I think.

But, like I sorta said before, it's not just ecological issues that make greenspace so important. It's also psychological!

What, you didn't think you'd get out of this without being subjected to looking at gravestones, did you?

I promise, though. Only two.

 This former burial ground is now maintained by one of London's professional guilds: The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Rather than highlighting its natural form or its past as a churchyard, they chose to landscape it formally, turning it into a proper small garden.

Side note to my friend Amanda: This is the only memorial to newspaper publishers in London.

Most of the Guildhall area squares don't follow such a rigid form, but seeing this formal garden architecture is a reminder of human impact on our landscape. This is obviously what the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths sees as relaxing and peaceful. And it is- it's a quiet space that smells nice and is partially sunken into the ground. The manicured part of the garden- the part without the graves- is essentially subterranean, separating the people who choose to use it from the main thoroughfare above. It creates this removed space for them, allowing them to detach from the business world and have a moment of tranquility. With stress being as serious a worry as it is these days, and inactivity contributing to all kinds of unwellness (including obesity and mental distress), a place to walk and hide from the world's realities must be a welcome relief.