CPRE London (a charity working to protect green spaces and promote regeneration of previously developed sites in London) have mapped which parts of London have the least green space per person.
This was done by looking at two variables
- the total area of the green spaces available within 400 metres of an output area
- the total population of the output areas within 400m of those green spaces
Their mapping shows that:
- The boroughs with the lowest amount of greenspace per person are:
- City of London (0.36 sqm)
- Kensington and Chelsea (0.38 sqm)
- Islington (0.45 sqm)
- Camden (0.50 sqm)
- Tower Hamlets (0.68 sqm)
- These boroughs, and the rest of the top 10, are all inner London boroughs
Pros of this map:
- Important proof of concept demonstrating the need for population adjusted measures of access to public spaces
Cons of this map:
- The dataset they used (Spaces to Visit) has inaccuracies and is incomplete
- They didn’t have access to software that can calculate walking distances to entrances of sites, and so the map uses ‘as the crow flies’ distance