Thames Barrier Park

On Monday I and some other Landscape Architecture student went to explore the award-wining Thames Barrier Park, which was opened in 2000. The park is set within 22 acres of lawns, trees and hedges, the waterside park features fountains, gardens, wildflower meadows, a children's play area and a 5-a-side football/basketball court, with magnificent views of the barrier.

As we expected, there were not a lots of visitors in January, especially with the windy

say. The park looked attractive in the winter as well, its a good time to see how plants lo

ok in the winter, especially herbaceous (which were all cut back), grasses with their lovely autumn color and trees, deciduous and evergreen.

As seen on photos designer used a lot of straight lines (gravel paths) and to make the design unique the straight lines turn to open spaces, by using the same material but to keep up with the detail trees and other features are used to give a artistic continuous of lines. The design has got that 'romantic French feeling' withe the way of use of planting. Good example is the shape of Taxus Baccata (yew conifer hedges) that matches with the concrete shapes used to break up the deck platform...

There are some maintenance issues around the park. By looking a the photos i realized and i believe that the bark at the bottom of the tree is not being eaten by squires but by maintenance streamers, when the lawn gets cut.