This is a smart new pocket park that sits in front of Kidbrooke station’s new ticket hall and was created as part of a large housing development going up at the moment.
The park is more a series of parklets that are in clusters that help to fill up what would otherwise be a large open expanse of pavement tiles. It’s a change from the very early concept, which was for a square lawn, which would have looked nice in winter, and probably brown and ugly in winter. So they changed it for a series of raised beds dotted around the area with more interesting planting as well.
The design is conventional modern fashionable, in that it’s raised beds lined with stone walls, and then dense planting and a cascading water feature at one end with wooden platforms sitting above a series of shallow pools.
It’s a nice slightly upmarket looking design, which suits the area and helps to break down the space, but as someone who gets around a bit, it’s starting to look a bit samey — as it reminds me of quite a few recent developments and even the much older Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf.
Then again, it’s a popular style and if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
The raised beds also though creates a lot of seating along the edges without the need to add benches in the paved spaces, so those remain uncluttered.
The name of the square, along with the other names in the new Kidbrook Village comes from the former RAF base that used to be in the area.
The square has a number of shops now, but I was struck by how many coffee vendors there are — a large chain in the building, a free standing stall in the square and another one inside the train station as well. I prefer the train station one partly as it looked nicer, but in large part because of the free pastry they offered me.
Hope there’s a secure budget for maintaining the water Feature. They’re prone to problems. Can just see it ending up with planters instead.