@@jimtaylor294 I used to work in a concrete building from the 70s. I believe it has the Finnish equivalent of a Grade II listing, presumably to ensure that it survives as a warning to future generations. Even the psychedelic paint colours and giant floor/zone numbers are protected. On my first morning, I stepped into a bright orange concrete stairwell with a five-foot-tall green number on the wall, and I swear I smelled stale urine. It just felt so much like a multi-storey car park that my brain just filled in the smell.
@@6yjjk Sounds about right. Apartment blocks over here have been associated with the corridors reeking of wee, the lifts not working, and some even when new had rampent rot & mould problems. All the ones I've ever visited certainly lived upto the reputation. I'd agree that only one of the eyesores needs preserving... as a Warning from History.
Major problem here in Edmonton too. They are often used as defacto shelters and bathrooms for people sleeping rough.. Also doesn't help that we don't have public toilets even as part of most of the subway stations downtown... Hence why even over here I can practically smell the whiffs!
@@stickynorth Now, Bank station has City Corporation Toilets, and the City of London generally is a higher level of class of resident and indeed visitor. Beggars are few as no - one carries cash and the patrols of the Corporation Police Force are very frequent in removing the loiterers. This does not apply to the West End.
@@YHBW1001 Not just the politicians. You can be an unelected chief of public health, publish wildly inaccurate virus forecasts and be a major shareholder in a vaccine company. Apparently that's also not a conflict of interest. Suddenly I'm in the mood to sue someone.
@@randallgyebi978 I said unelected chief, not elected health secretary. Here, have a patronising correction link back: www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/09/24/no-conflict-of-interest-in-vallance-holding-vaccine-company-shares-hancock/ Here's the same clown drumming up sales: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-54235708 Get it?
Ernest Marples, Politician and fraudster. If his name had been mentioned on 'The Sweeney', Jack Regan would have said words to the effect of: "He's so bent, his picture wouldn't hang straight."
They works well here in Hong Kong as they go from subway station to malls and connecting multiple malls together, making easy to travel around also great to go around when its raining.
Yeah, I was thinking exactly this. Without any attraction like shops, cultural events, transportation and whatnot I don't see why anyone would use these pedways. Pedestrians are absurdly different from cars, the idea of an devoid of character expressway doesn't make sense and the new alternative seems to be the same thing.
Precisely. Though here, there's a very strong "push" factor in the summer as the sun barrels down and people boil in the humidity for most of the year. Any shaded area, elevated or not, will be preferred. Also, unlike in the UK, pedestrians here very much do not have the right of way.
I live in Hong Kong and use a pedestrian walkway quite frequently too. It links public housing estates to the town centre with all kinds of transport links, so it's always filled with commuters in rush hour. It's actually a straight line for half a kilometre. Goes on to show how important planning is.
I was just about to comment that lmao, but the places that need it most can't really have them. For example, literally everywhere west of sheng wan is just pure chaos, with random guys pushing carts on tramways, but pedways won't work there because it's a different vibe if you know what I mean.
@@willy_gooseling69 Sheung Wan is still many old buildings and would need a major overhaul, most of the new territories have it build very well, tsuen wan is probably the longest one there is connecting many malls
Planners of these projects never seem to factor in maintenance. Unless you wash the stairwells after the weekend, repair the broken lights, clean off graffiti promptly and generally keep things pleasant these areas can quickly become threatening and unused.
I was really suprised to see how well kept the pedways in the video looked. Would have imagined that such underused spaces would quickly fill up with garbage and graffiti
I worked in a building on London Wall that incorporated these walkways. It was a faff to walk two storeys up. When you got there, you had no idea where anything led, and there was always a wind blowing litter in high-speed vortices. Painful if you got hit in the eye by a polystyrene cup. On one side, through the windows, were surprised office workers, staring at you, wondering why a window cleaner was wearing a suit & not carrying his bucket & dirty rag. On the other was the balcony, where you could look down on the intelligent people, who knew better than to venture up from street level where common sense dictated that they should be.
Hmmmm.... One can have fun with that. How about dressing up as the grimm reaper next time. Then stop when they stare, and point at one. Or dress up as a dino.... Options are wast here my friend. 😁😁😁
I helped to install both of the bridges from 1 London Wall and know the engineer who recently erected the “rusty” one. Nice jobs but unless you need to get directly from one end to the other rather useless.
Good video, but perhaps you missed one of the most important reasons why they failed (not just in London, but in Manchester, Newcastle etc.) - they became a mugger's paradise by the 1980's and 1990's. The way the architects planned them (segregated corridors) meant that there was little or no interaction with the routes they were taking - and no-one in the buildings could see the pedestrians being mugged/raped/murdered etc. People felt safer taking their chances on narrow pavements with speeding cars, so used these instead.
Ironically the people of Newcastle were soundly mugged by the council before they had the opportunity to be hassled on elevated walkways. Still at least there was less Georgian architecture to admire and you got to see concrete spalling more often.
@ Airports are not open air inner city concrete drains with no security. Walk through any underpass in the middle of a British city and all it is missing is a line of urinal cakes along the gutters.
Reminds me that my family was also asking why it was so hard to find free public toilets when holidaying in Europe. I heard it's due to concerns of vandalism, which is significantly less common where I'm from (some of my countrymen would attribute that to corporal punishment for vandalism here)
The pedways in London aren't just disorienting and physically exerting, I think (from I've seen) pedestrians feel really unsafe navigating them. Think about it: the lighting is subpar, there are no shops or restaurants lining them (causing them to be deserted at certain times of day) and because of the cramped space and constant turns you can't see what's ahead of you. If I had lived there during their construction I would have constantly been worried about potential muggers and the like waiting around the corner. The Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands has two or three pedways elevated above the main courtyard. These work because they're straightforward, and because they're actually necessary - the whole complex is enormous! I think they're reserved for medical personnel but I'm not sure.
Most, if not all, shown in this video is in the City which usually feels safe. But I take your point about it feeling less safe in less salubrious areas.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Every single shot of the pedways in the video shows a deserted, claustrophobic space with a blind corner every few seconds of walking. Total mugger's paradise.
HK uses raised walkways on the island and they are rather successful, however they are rather wide, contain lifts at strategic locations, as well as small shops selling food and other odds and sods and all link subway stations or ferry wharfs. Tokyo has some as well, however these are normally created by the folks who build large buildings and you will find a lot of shops leading off them. Minneapolis has a network similar to what was proposed for London, but that was so people did not have to walk in sub-arctic weather when they left their office for lunch.
Minneapolis, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary... The four cities that have extensive elevated pedway networks and for a good reason. Just being connected to the system elevates a buildings value much like being on a mass transit line. Also a selling point for The Ice District here in Edmonton. Skyscraper penthouses connected to the +15 network as its called here. That's why the Stanley Cup is being hosted here this year... Trying to help Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz move condo's in the tallest building in Canada outside Toronto he had built as part of its ego trip... Not saying it's a bad thing, but I digress... ;-)
Fairly sure an early version of this was build in Italy for a nobleman in the late middle ages (or later), so it's an idea that's been rumbling around for a while.
@@Blaqjaqshellaq I was planning to be in Chongqing this November but obviously not happening now. May be there next year at some point hopefully though once things ease so will see if I can find them.
It was the mid 20th century; planners never really accommodated people with mobility problems or sensory impairments. Why would this walkway / shop / road / office need to accommodate them? There aren't any here *now*. Admittedly local government tried to build sheltered housing for elderly people, but took care to put most of them in second-floor apartments with steep external staircases. The same thinking led to the Invacar scheme - designed by people who had absolutely no idea that a person with mobility problems might need to take the kids to school or do a week's shopping or even have some kind of hobby. Somebody sat in a committee room and said "They just need to drive to the clinic or wherever it is that they go, apparently some of them can't get on buses, let's make a special little buggy for that", and all the other able-bodied men in suits nodded in agreement.
@@bobrayner7349 ah yes I remember the Invacars, any colour you want, provided it was light blue, an elderly man at the same lodgings as I had one, drove it like a nutter.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area in the USA has a similar concept called "skyways" that connected downtown buildings. You would actually walk through the buildings and then on a bridge, you can access the adjacent buildings. The key difference was that these skyways were enclosed which made them handy during the winter months and they went inside of buildings instead along side of them. Years ago, I walked St. Paul's skyways and was very impressed.
The skyway system is great. A lot of people use it even during the warmer seasons. It has a lot of restaurants and convenience stores connected to it. It’s also really busy during games. People use to get to their parking spots and ramps. Also feels safer than walking out on the streets.
Yeah the skyways are very nice. You can get to most of downtown Minneapolis without ever going out into the cold. Much better than st paul's IMO. They are hard to navigate for a newcomer but they serve such a handy purpose in winter that they are still used
Oh my god I just commented this 🤣 the skyway system is so vast too you can get pretty much anywhere downtown without going outside. Growing up around there I was shocked all cities weren't like that 😂
I was going to mention Minneapolis-St. Paul as well. We visited the cities in the summer and I was pretty impressed by all the connecting bridges. Montreal took a different approach and has an immense walkable underground city which seems to be highly successful.
This video showed the pedway as being sort of aimless and pedestrians have to go out of their way. I understand it rains a lot in London. In Minneapolis, we have a skyway system that runs through office buildings and over roadways. There are lots of restaurants, fast food, shops and stores on this level. It is well-loved because we can get some exercise in as well as get to meetings, do errands/shopping/food without being exposed to snow, rain, heat, and subzero cold.
Schemes like this do work well in cold climates. The underground pathways in Toronto and Montreal offer great benefits. The problem is that large parts are within private buildings, which manage them as they see fit. I damn near froze to death in Minneapolis when I worked late and three blocks were unheated. And I got kicked out on the street in Toronto when the department store basement I was transiting on the way back to my hotel suddenly closed, and they locked the doors to the tunnels in front of me. Visitors beware.
@@qtrfull Yeah, there are unheated sections but enclosed, and you should always have a coat with you in Minneapolis in the winter. If you know where you're going and its during the workday, though, it's the best way to get around in the winter. Summers are nice up here so I recommend the streets then.
The pedways would surely have been better if there had been shops and restaurants on them. Instead, they were only intended as ways to get from A to B. Every shot of them in the video is of a deserted, claustrophobic place where you're constantly worrying about what might be around the next corner and there's nobody to help if it's something bad.
I like the ones around the Barbican. They always feel like a bit of a secret route and they don't smell of wee or feel like places to get mugged in. I also think the brutalist architecture has weathered in to become just another layer in the fabric of the city.
@John Getting mugged, killed, human trafficked? God, I don't think I could ever feel safe walking in one of these without atleast four or five other people with me. Feels like I can see the horrible fate awaiting me before I enter.
The Calgary +15 walkway system works really well. The climate gives everyone a huge incentive to stay inside in the winter, so the walkway system is a coordinated network that links hotel lobbies, shopping centers, and enclosed bridges across the street. You can walk around the whole city center in shirt sleeves even when it's blowing a blizzard outside. It's got little businesses running all through it, so there are plenty of destinations to walk to.
Thanks for mentioning this! It probably works well because of people using it. Even if London would copy the exact same system, locals would probably make it "less enjoyable" over time 😄
Was thinking about Calgary as well. It works well there, I think because they avoid lots of the previous mistakes: Visibility is mostly good, so is signage, and it also helps that downtown Calgary is already all clean-cut right angles.
Chicago (where I'm from) has a large underground pedway system below its downtown. It's a great way to avoid both the car and pedestrian traffic and stay warm in the winter. You can go from multiple train stations to several buildings downtown without going outside, or at the very least walk a short distance from a pedway entrance to whatever building you're going to. It's really convenient and I feel like it's something not even that many people in Chicago know about. Edit: accidentally put some words in past tense, fixed it because the pedway system in Chicago is very much still around
The nearest I can think of in London is the shopping precincts around Canary Wharf. When I worked in a building connected to it, I could go out at lunch time in winter with no jacket and be nearly home before going out into the weather.
@@tw25rw I immediately thought of Canary Wharf as well, with the two shopping malls both being connected to each other and the Jubilee Line and DLR stations by walkways below street level. I believe that the Crossrail station will also be accessible in the same way if/when it opens. I've heard that Montreal, and probably other Canadian cities, have similar but more extensive systems and as the original developers of Canary Wharf were Canadian that must be where the idea came from.
When I was exploring during an empty Sunday, those pedways shown at start near the Museum of London were so hard to navigate and so eerie. I lost many times going up and down not knowing what and why they exist there. It did remind me of the Yugoslavian Architecture. Some of them were so small and cramped it was pretty scary to walk trough but it was a fun adventure!
I'd imagine people wouldn't feel to safe on them either, being hard to escape from and having bottlenecks would be highly intimidating for some people. But, did Dr. Beeching have any involvement with this if it was to promote road ways?
@@JagoHazzard How Much (and it has been sat on my shelf unread for 40 years) did Colin Buchanan's Report on Traffic In Towns have to do with this too? (I also have a pair of sociology books Problems Of Urban Society') In part with the embankments of the Thames the overhead walkways would not be so daft, but why did the Corporation NOT plan as a cohesive whole. For the Barbican the difficulty of moving around was deliberate - to break up the flow of possible anti-social 'Steaming' of swift foot-pads - remember in the City it is illegal to steal a fiver, but to launder the odd £10million is fine (not fined).
My granddad used to always tell us about how many railways closed because of Beeching, it wasn't until I was a teenager that I realized that he was saying Dr. Beeching and not Beecham. I thought as a kid the railways had been closed by a company making cold and flu aid. But hello you.
@@JagoHazzard This is how it should have been done. 2 minutes to view this. The whole system in time lapse. Calgary is similar in population to greater Leeds. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-maZKzfUCTPg.html
I agree I would not go away near these with the amount of crime rising in London in 2020. No surprise the guy mention who helped push it through has a huge stake in motorway investment. Same old same old. Corrupt ministers, backhanders and optional shares............ Veri interesting video. Thank you.
Toronto has successfully implemented a similar type of scheme: it now has the world's largest underground pedestrian network. There are several key differences: - it's climate controlled, which is attractive with Toronto's scorching summers and slushy winters - it's full of shops and restaurants, making it less dreary than the pedways - it has direct access to subway stations, so walking in it often doesn't require any more up and down than walking along the streets - it's huge so there's a very good chance that your destination is connected to it - it's underground so it doesn't block any sightlines However it shares the problem that it was not centrally planned so it is very easy to get disoriented. Montréal also has succesful underground pedestrian network and Calgary has an elevated one. In those cities they provided an escape from the frigid winters.
Yup. Britain may have invented it but Canada perfected it. Wherever they are built they tend to be TOO successful in that they draw street traffic onto the +15 level above... Or below depending on the city... Montreal for example is below...
Many Canadian cities have severely cold winters. London generally does not have winters as cold as most Canadian cities. Our winters have more rain, rather than snow. It also rarely gets below -5 c.
@@OntarioTrafficMan No........we Brits are used to dealing with lots of rain! ....umbrellas are big business in the UK!! In all seriousness though yea you'd think that they would have done so, but I guess they didn't think of that. Maybe they ran out of money.......or more likely they didn't care about pedestrians getting wet as they were too preoccupied with cars, and filling cities with them.
Toronto has a underground pedestrian network of 30 km, but Montréal has a network of 32 km in downtown montreal. So, Montreal has de largest network. But, Toronto has the most shopping underground area in the world. Also, the underground city in Montreal is de main network (32 km) but eight other smaller network exist in the city, all connected via the metro lines.
This was my thought. They took an existing rail line (instead of building something new that would ruin the existing view) and made it beautiful. Unlike many places in NYC, it tends to be a place that's for New Yorkers rather than for tourists.
@@boomshabanga1988 “it tends to be for nyers not tourists” are you joking? Lol most nyers have never been to the high line especially those that don’t live in Manhattan or in a neighborhood near the high line if you do live in Manhattan, it’s full of tourists not that that’s wrong
@@jayeff15 I can see that. I discovered the High Line a few Summers after it opened while staying with a friend who lived nearby. He’d never been and neither have any of the New Yorkers I know.
La Defense in Paris went the exact opposite way. Instead of separating the pesky pedestrians from the almighty car, they made the entire ground level a pedestrian area and moved the car traffic under ground. No doubt with its own problems but those were not so visible to the casual tourist like me ;)
Also "Pedway" to an American conjures up nightmare images of scumbags just waiting for an innocent victim. Yeah no thanks! Keep that one in the dustbin of history!
For some reason I have a strong desire to walk around the pedways with a bunch of mates in white cricket gear, black boots, cricket groin protectors on the outside, wearing black bowler hats.
I always go on a spree of watching these failed urban project videos when I'm terribly hungover and it's the only thing I can manage. They fit perfectly with my mood.
The pedway between Basinghall Street and Golden Lane was my favourite part of my morning commute. It was so peaceful up there. You could amble along interrupted by crossings and combustion engine units, without constantly having to look over your shoulder for incoming cycles and scooters. When they closed the section over London Wall a few years ago I feared it had gone for good but the new sections, past the Schroeder’s’ building, are beautiful and sensitively executed.
"Streets in the sky" - as a native of Birmingham, I'm only too aware of separating vehicles & pedestrians. Unfortunately most of ours were underground, breeding grounds for muggings, & are now memories of my childhood, all removed by the 90s to 2000s. Sadly they were a victim of 60s Brutalist architecture, which I have a strange fondness for. In NYC the former Highline railway has been turned into a lovely winding elevated walkway, almost like a park, going through & around old factories & new skyscrapers, showing that these ideas can flourish.
many of our rail stations in my city were built along with much of the rest of the city during the 50s and so they went think big, subways and all, but the subways in small suburban stations are dangerous, so they gradually got closed and bridges installed instead. A couple were modified to remove the switchbacks in the stairs and ramps so people on the street could see down into them.
They didn't really consider the disabled either did they, ramps are marginally better but most of them are quite steep, the stairs everywhere though are a nightmare.
TGW, You have a lot of style! Your vid’s are always excellent on content, but your narration really makes them. & I’m sure my co-commenters agree. Keep up the crisp dry humour, sir!
I was in New York City back in 2016, I walked along part of the Highline, which was a disused elevated rail line converted into pedestrian paths and gardens, it’s honestly a lovely and pleasant place to spend an afternoon, it appears to be quite a popular space. So I can totally see a place for these raised pedestrian spaces, if done correctly, hopefully London’s new ones will deliver the same as the Highline.
This is so interesting! I lived in London for five years and never even noticed the Pedway system. I think the only time I'd use it (unknowingly) was walking from Barbican station to the Barbican Centre (route pictured at 2:26) some evenings to see a play... I always thought it was odd how the route there was via a raised walkway cutting straight through apartment complexes, with signs pleading with pedestrians to keep the noise down at night!
An extreme example of pedways was extruded at Killingworth Township, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There, the common folk were houses in concrete mock-castles, festooned with elevated concrete walkways. The only way to reach the Township centre, on foot, was via these long, unroofed human conduits, while the slightly better-off zoomed about in their Ford Escorts, far below. People hated it.
It is a good idea, but the city as a whole needs to be planned and built for it. decree #1: every building downtown needs to have at least one terrace on the first floor, which connects by above-ground bridges across motorways to terrace(s) of other building(s) or any other pedway part. ...and... that's basically it. but it needs to be followed from the start of the city.
if you follow the idea all the way through, what you get is a duplication of existing streets, which makes no sense when you already have sidewalks on all of them
@@sashkad9246 Not really, as a walkway does not need to follow the street pattern. It can go between or even through buildings. It doesn't need to fill all the space either, that'd be daft. It just creates space for people to walk, shop and rest.
@@buddyclem7328 Same here, honestly would be super down with those things being built all over the place, and also having roads raised above ground level sounds weirdly interesting...
@@void6215 around the time the first skyscrapers where built in New York, such ideas popped up, and got really popular. Plans where made for skyscraper - clusters with trams and pedestrian lanes through the sky. The plans turned out to be to much management for corporates who just build their own buildings. The drawings are amazing though. You can read about it in Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas.
As others have pointed out they did try this in Liverpool (UK). One surviving relic of this scheme is that Moorfields railway station, an underground stop on the Merseyrail network, has it's main entrance above street level! In order to reach the underground platforms you have to climb stairs, use an escalator or a ramp and then descend down another escalator to the trains!
I'm a fan of them in the City. Moving around the Barbican on the walkways is much nicer up there than down at street level. The great pity is, like Jago say, in the 1990s the scheme was dropped. Buildings were built by London Wall, Wormwood Street/Moorgate that could and should have linked up Liverpool Street station and the walkways around the Nat West tower to the walkways of the Barbican. Then there would have been a REAL functionality to them - being able to get onto the them at Broadgate/Liverpool Street and walk above the streets all the way to Smithfield/Barbican station One of Londons lost opportunitys ;-(
Yep, I used to regularly walk to Barbican library from my office on King William Street and enjoyed the 'highwalk' (that was what I knew them as instead of 'pedways') section from Basinghall St onwards. A nice little retreat from the noise and traffic at steret level
I’m a fan too. It is a lost opportunity. I always wonder why when you go to a ‘modern’ development like Canary Wharf or the Olympic Park you have to cross roads to get to places when an older place like the Barbican is so much more pedestrian friendly!
@@BertieFett oh i sooo agree ...and the dumbest one of all is the new development to the north of kings cross station - granary square. Lets build flats and offices for 40,000 people and connect them to the ONLY nearby public transport, kings cross station, with a single zebra crossing on Goodsway!
Yeah, I like them too - they're a great place to get lunch. If everything built since then had been connected up, I would have little reason to walk at street level.
They had the same crazy idea here in Liverpool. Thankfully little was built apart from a couple of large footbridges (dismantled after less than 50 years). Frustratingly a new underground station was built (Moorefields) with the entrance about 20 feet above street level. You have to use steps or an escalator to enter or exit. You go up to then go down to the platforms.
They’re just another example of an innovation in London being more successfully capitalised on in other cities. They kind of work along London Wall/Barbican, but no where near as successfully as I saw in Hong Kong.
@@aclark903 I sometimes think the art centre itself suffers from not really having a permanent collection, and the galleries themselves hosting such a wide variety of artists that tourists can’t really know what they’re signing up to. But yeah, that sort of brutalist concrete all around there is just amazing.
I think it's not wellbeing the pedways lack, but variation. The typical street is full of shifting details, even at ground level. If meandering architectural forms, murals, shops, varied facades were implemented, it would be a lot more stimulating - and fun - to walk down
Yes, one on 4:50 has at least something to look at outside. On the inside it's pretty nothing. These walkways lack greenery, they are too narrow and they have no entertainment. I worked in a company I could get two ways: shorter one through an industrial borough, and another one that was longer by ten minutes or so, but it lead through a couple of parks. Needless to say I always used the latter one and used the former only in bad weather or when I was running pretty late. That new one on 5:56 is much better, but it's still a bit too narrow, imho.
I can think of two, one from Waterloo station to The London Eye, and the other was on an estate off Walworth Road in Elephant. The ministers who let this go through, never had to use it!
Similar to what they did in Montreal, except the amazing thing about Montreal is that all the "pedways" are underground, and connect directly to the metro stations at mezzanine level, and there are a bunch of underground shops connected directly to them; there is even a full on underground shopping center underneath an office building downtown!
The failure of pedways to take off in their original incarnation is linked with the failings in high-rise flats and “villages in the sky” from the same era. Decent concepts executed with staggering arrogance and complete ignorance of the social factors. Pedways deserve a second chance, but also need innovative building design to make more of the upper floor the pedways connect to.
I lived in the Barbican for a while, used all sorts of pedways, thought they made a nice and interesting view and added a sort of pleasentness to the walks I used to have, not to mention cutting across to areas where alternate routes would be awkward.
Yeah, but the Barbican has been well-maintained. It's still horrifically ugly of course, but it doesn't have the crumbling concrete, grime, water stains and background smell of piss that a lot of these 60s concrete hellholes do.
If you were starting a city from the beginning, this would make a lot of sense. Keep ground level for traffic, parking and delivery access. Make the first floor contain public entrances and cover it all from the weather. The current design just looks like somewhere people go if they want mugging, like subways.
if you're starting a city from the beginning you exclude cars completely, or limit their access, and give pedestrians priority. has been tried in many cities and is generally hugely successful.
I’m Australian. My wife and I just spent three weeks in London. We stayed with our daughters in their apartment near In Barbican. I found the area around Barbican and the Museum of London a bit odd and confusing, because of those raised walkways that didn’t seem to go anywhere and staircases that were blocked off. Now, I understand what the back story behind it is.
We had the same problem with this idea in Newcastle upon Tyne, anything that’s left is a poor state of disrepair and unsafe that may be a reflection on poor quality of materials used in the original builds
Minneapolis has a pedway system that is useable because it covers most of the downtown and has retail shops and restaurants on all the areas that travel through buildings, even ones that aren't expressly built for retail commerce (such as office buildings). The walkways in between the buildings are also enclosed with heat and a/c, mainly because the city has pretty cold winters and hot summers, being in the midwest. When I visited Minneapolis, it was one of the first things I noticed about the city. I've been to London quite a few times and this is the first time I've ever heard of such a system there, which shows the point Jago was making.
The High Line here in NYC is pretty successful because it presents itself as a park. It's pretty nice. Theyre thinking of doing something similar in The Bronx too.
I used to commute from Liverpool St Station to Holborn Circus. I would often walk with street walking from LST to Moorgate but then up on to the pedway above the noise and the traffic. A couple of hundred metres later I'd be into the gardens (and quiet) of the Barbican. It always baffled me that I would almost be alone there and yet 15m below me hundreds of people would be walking through the dual-carriageway tunnel with cars and trucks that runs under The Barbican. I suspect that the planners actually dreamed of the garden and your final segment is much closer to that dream. I recall sci-fi pictures from that era where public space was all pedestrians and gardens - The Barbican walking areas come close.
The walkway near the Museum of London is the best example of why this never works. You can be mere metres away from the museum but have to walk across a street or two to ascend to the next level then walk around in a semi cicle to get to the museum. It’s completely counter intuitive to have to walk partially away from your destination.
I love the Pedway! I personally discovered it by accident 10 years ago when I first visited London, and had gone to the Barbican. I explored the area extensively where you walk at the beginning; around the City Museum and over to the newer buildings; I remember having lunch there and it was so peaceful and quiet. It's so underused, but that makes it a nice place to be because you can explore it in peace and take all kinds of photography and video privately; it provides a nice above ground view of some parts of the city, most especially the Barbican. I wish they had one of these in my city.
What one in Tokyo doesn't have pollution? What one isn't packed with people. And being 30cm taller it was no treat having every umbrella at poke your eye out level.
Entertained by watching someone walk these rarely experienced streets of London. Very eloquent and interesting commentary - overall, well done! The pedways? A good idea, poorly executed. I've enjoyed exploring the Barbican though which feels like a small, elevated city (without all the shops!). And millions use the shortish one from Waterloo through the Shell buildings towards Westminster. This video reminded me of the elevated walkway in NYC which converted an old railway line, which has been done very well. Making them a living space with greenery helps hugely to change the experience of being on them.
I find them difficult to navigate. It's not clear where they lead because they'll often switch back on themselves confusingly, or have dead ends as mentioned in the video. Perhaps adding maps of the pedways would make them more intuitive and make them feel more enjoyable to wander along.
If they made them easier to navigate and converted them for cyclists it could reduce road congestion and make the surface streets safer for pedestrians, the reduction in traffic could then allow certain streets to have segregated cycle roads added or be turned over to pedestrians and/or bikes entirely (maybe with exceptions for delivery where no alternative exists), driving in the city is a pain anyway, there needs to be more alternatives and if it reduces pollution and traffic it would make the city more pleasant for everyone, including those who need to drive.
Great video, very interesting. I've walked a few over the years, but unless you're around London Wall they're pretty much forgotten now. I see you got the back entrance stairs into Blackfriars north, that's a handy one if you're in Puddle Dock. Is there a published map of where they all are ??
@@JagoHazzardCool, thank you. I'd forgotten about the ones across Upper and Lower Thames Street. They're quite handy still with that busy road. I never realised that Peter's Hill was regarded as one. That's a lovely walk down from St Pauls to the 'wobbly' bridge :-)
In my small American town there is a relatively short one through the downtown. It is still used by some of the people who work in the attached office buildings and they are grateful for it during our cold winters, but it gets a lot less use since all the retail moved out to suburbs, they don't connect parking to any entertainment venues, and running through office buildings are pretty pretty much inaccessible after 6pm.
I used to use them daily from Moorgate station to BT Centre via Museum of London. At one point there were bars, a newsagents and a Pizza Express up there. Even with proximity to Barbican flats, there were never many people about and pre Covid businesses were pulling out. They were cut off from Moorgate by the Crossrail works, but the new more organic replacement section is an improvement, but no High Line.
Good idea, badly executed. I would really love the system if: - had great design, benches, shrubbery, trees, etc. - consistent cover from wind, rain, noise and blaring sunshine. - great access to street level, with as few stairs as possible, provide escalators and lifts and whole system fully accessible. - great access to shops, bus/tube stops along the way - great access to parking space - leave a car, use the pedway to get around the city - bike friendly - easy to navigate with clear routes, maps and landmarks. - regularly cleaned, maintained and patrolled.
These are supposed to be "Pedways" ie. "pedestrian ways" riding of bikes should not be permitted , you know what chaos those maniacs cause on the pavements meant for pedestrians (persons that WALK) on the streets below already.
@@Hanzo.Azmodan We have pavements and all the shops are on the ground, frankly turning them into "pedalways" instead would be a great idea to get people out of their cars, probably be quicker for people to commute by bike if there were dedicated bike highways!
That Barbican area walk you showed in the beginning was my walk to and from secondary school! It was nice to not be right on the street but only worked because our school was connected to the walkway and otherwise wouldn’t have made sense to use. It was also plagued by creeps flashing schoolchildren and often smelled of pee...
This concept kind of reminds me of the covered skyways here in Minneapolis, it's necessary for the cold winter months so you don't say, die in the ice-cold winters or on the icy pavement, but it does have an effect of sucking the life off the streets, creating a nasty void nobody knows what to do with and hurting street-level retail.
So good to see videos with interesting, clear spoken content and _original footage_, not the stock crap that so many edutainment channels reach straight for these days! Masterfully done.
“They had a vision but no plan” Subscribed just for that succinct and eminently quotable turn of phrase. I’ve been enjoying these tours of history and architecture, looking forward to seeing more.
We have them in Spokane that connects the downtown offices and shops they are enclosed and heated walkways. I really like them for the ease of use and views as well. Big bonus is not walking in the snow between shops and buildings.
Men on the fiddle, evading taxes etc, often have all their money held for then by a submissive wife. My father once tried to sue a "wealthy" businessman, with an expensive car etc. It turned out he had no money or assets whatsoever - his wife held it all
For reals, I have spent 10 minutes trying to find my way in or out of The Barbican. I can see where I want to go but can’t get there. Best bet is to find your way back to a street and then wonder if this conference is really worth your time anyway.
Wasn't there the reverse idea once of roads in the sky and pedestrians at ground level? For example I think there was the inner motorway ring around the centre of London. Just bits got built with flyovers ending in mid-air. Similarly in Salisbury there is (was) a flyover ending in mid-air. The problem is to build it in one go requires too much demolition and money and it gives rise to too much opposition and it's a big risk that it doesn't work in practice. If done piece meal it is subject to changing ideas, changing political make-up and changing financial well-being of councils. Evolution has merits.
We have one in our town built in the early 00s. The spiral staircase South entrance always smells of wee but the pedway bridge towards the railway station is fine.
There’s one of these in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Inner Harbor. It doesn’t go anywhere particularly useful, but does give you a nice view down Pratt Street.
i think the idea could work, however, you would have to bring "street-level" up along with it. you don't need a car for a shop, but you do need a person there. bring all shops to the first or second floor. leave everything below for warehouse space and we are all good, right?
Not being a Londoner, I once got 'lost' on the pedway in London Wall trying to find the entrance to the Museum of London. Now I finally know what these things were. Thx as always Jago. Nothing like watching yr vids first thing, 'Easy like a Sunday morning'...
Thanks! Yeah, that kind of illustrates one of the big problems with the pedway system - it’s not very intuitive to navigate. I’ve been to the Barbican Estate loads of times and I still need signs.
@@JagoHazzard I was walking through the Barbican hell once on a very windy day - suddenly a gust tore through and knocked everyone off their feet. Complete wind-trap.
Add two other cities that have working pedways,Toronto and Minneapolis,and also a few Canadian cities! All have extremely heavy duty winters! Keeping people warm,and under cover,works well! As an addendum,New York had overhead walkways,during the (ready),the 1870's,and onward! There were actually people jams on the streets(like Tokyo,now).History again!
@@JagoHazzard For the Barbican you will see some painted routeways , these were actually old Londoners routes which were indicated by chalked markings on the ground and low walls, indeed you may see some original ones on the roman wall fragments,, in early days Chalk pencils were spherical to assist holding, chiselled from the Kent coast at the White Cliffs of Dover (and Ebbsfleet Quarry). hence the Cockney Pedestrian Comment of 'Going For a Ball Of Chalk' when using the Shank's Pony travel method.
@@JagoHazzard @whyyoulidl The quickest Way from Moorgate to Museum Of London (and Nicer) is to Walk to Bank, then up Cheapside to St Pauls, then right toward the podium, but to a little right then left past the church (ex its tower is now offices and aisle now a roadway) up the stairs and you have arrived. Jago - you did a bit on London Wall, how about all 24 ? historic plaque markers
Kinda reminds me of L'Enfant Plaza in DC: mostly empty, hard to walk to, and goes nowhere. Too much concrete, surrounded by large roads, bisected with a freeway, and large, imposing buildings.
I have not been there but videos exist about the Minneapolis Skyway System in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That system cuts through buildings. It is open sides in some areas. Walkways are entirely enclosed in other spots. It connects buildings, businesses, government offices, parks and more. Some businesses benefit from getting a connection. A few businesses solely exist because of it, having been built elevated up on it and opened when the Walkway System opened.
My city has some of these pedways They were built in the 60s and 70s to connect malls with train stations and to cross the city highway They have also converted an old train line with lots of bridges into the city high line similar to the one in New York City
Strange how much better they are in Calgary, AB, Canada. Our winters last 6 months and it gets down to -40*C here during cold snaps. The indoor pedways are a lifesaver in downtown, but they are closed most of the evening and weekends.
All the potential ammonia smelling and lack of security aside, the now (seems like) desolated pedways give strong vibes of liminality / backrooms (tho it's outdoors) imo
We call them Skyways where I live, and they're enclosed, heated and cooled, and accessible via elevator (you call them lifts) and escalators (no idea what you call moving staircases). They connect absolutely every single building to every other one so you never have to walk outside. It's helpful because it's extremely cold here in winter (as low as -40°F/-40°C) and snowy, and winter can last as long as 7 months, while our summers can be very hot and humid. They get jam-packed. Ours are connected to shops and restaurants, not to mention parking ramps and office buildings, making it convenient for workers going to lunch. I dunno, Londoners. You're doing it wrong.
Fun fact: The Soviet Union actually took inspiration from the UK for the khrushchyovka (those miserable concrete social housing monstrosities) so this Architecture is inherintly British. Grey and Dull purely with function in mind. 😔
I think one of the best arguments against designing city centre streets around cars instead of around pedestrians, is "cars don't spend money in your shop. People do."
