Series of postcards released ‘Celebrating Great LTNS of South …
LTNs (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) have sprung up across South London adding new open spaces on roads and restricting car access. Some people object to these but a majority of Londoners[1] appear to welcome them.
Regardless of that, they are new and interesting additions to our city scape that are being celebrated in a series of (currently) seven postcards of some of the more attractive ones.
The postcard project idea was started by London writer and tour guide Chris Roberts[2] some months ago after repeated vandalism of the trees at the Shakespeare Road planting on the northern boundary of the Railton Road Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN).
It’s a road he passes down pretty much every day and has published an academic paper and created a video tour [3]devoted to the squats of the 1970s and 1980s.
Roberts says;
“I’ve some sympathy with older residents of Shakespeare Road who lived there when both ends (Railton Road and Coldharbour Lane) were more dangerous and there were no local shops and a poor rail connection at Loughborough Junction; then having a car made more sense.
Now there are shops at both ends, better transport and significantly lower crime and you can’t base future environmental measures on past practices.”
He has rather less sympathy for what he refers to as “tin foil hat aficionados” who believe that LTNs are evil machinations of the globalist One World government designed to stifle movement under the cover of “green fascism”.
“They’re just welcome additions to the streetscape and are an attempt to encourage people to switch their transport options, improve the air for everyone, including the huge numbers who don’t drive, and open up new meeting places.”
Aside from Shakespeare Road mentioned above there are also Fentiman Road and Atlantic Road (both pictured) and Amelia Street, Liverpool Grove, Calton Avenue and Melbourne Grove.
They are available online here[4] or at Herne Hill Books.
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References
- ^ a majority of Londoners (www.forbes.com)
- ^ Chris Roberts (www.thecityoverthewater.com)
- ^ created a video tour (www.youtube.com)
- ^ available online here (www.thecityoverthewater.com)
- ^ you can donate here (www.brixtonbuzz.com)