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Greenground Map in Forbes article of London National Park City

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Forbes article of What Is London’s National City Park Status And Which Other Cities Will Follow? is a story of London’s journey of becoming a National Park City and the people and ideas behind it. I was very happy to see it also features the Greenground map alongside the Urban Good‘s official National Park City map.

The author, Alex Ledsom, covers the Greenground Map’s concept later in the article.

A key part of the campaign has been to restyle London as a green city in the maps its residents and tourists use every day. The Greenground Map by Helen Ilus follows the layout of the iconic London tube map but it links green spaces instead of transport hubs. It is hoped it will encourage sustainable and healthy commutes around London by linking its green spaces, paths and cycle routes. The map also includes kayaking routes and birdwatching spots. 

Forbes

I love Alex’s quote of restyling London as a green city through maps. This shows sometimes we do not need a lot to make a change – we just need new eyes to see things differently!

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The Greenground Map on National Park City website

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Last week saw London becoming National Park City with various events taking place around London, including opening ceremony in London City Hall as well as the launch of National Park City ‘Maker’, 64 pages paper the guys at National Park City have worked very hard for last months. The Greenground map gets a mention on the online post as supplement idea to enjoy!

Furthermore the Greenground Map is now displayed on National Park City website alongside with the amazing Urban Good’s National Park City Map and Kabir Kaul’s Nature Reserves of London. The post includes short description of the project and some ideas for further development. I especially like the ‘Explore’ button on homepage.. this is what this experimental map is all about 🙂

Read about Greenground map on London National Park City website

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Expanded London Greenground Map

2 min readUnofficial London Greenground Map is expanded Park Connection Map covering more green and blue ground across Greater London. The focus of the experimental map is to connect parks and open spaces into one walkable and cyclable network. This is an independent creative project that started from an idea to propose an accessible map that would help navigating London via parks and waterways.

The third version of the map has two more river lines – Crane and Wandle, connecting parks along the river banks. The long distant LOOP line is based on a real TFL London LOOP walking trail, a 150 mile (242 km) circular walk around London that includes many open spaces and in some sections runs along the rivers and canals. I have also added bird watching places and viewpoints.

As the map grows the legibility also grows more complicated. The new map has around 300 parks and open spaces that is 10% of the 3000 parks and green spaces of London.  It is now obvious it’s not practical (or even possible) to include all green spaces to one legible map, but the further development could see one large map with main open spaces and smaller area maps with local park connections.

My map also does not take account specific street conditions and may not suggest the best walking or cycling routes. The map does not suggest specific streets as it assumes every park or open space does have a reasonably walkable street to the park next to it. Some of the paths are recognised trails, but part of the fun  for me was also to suggest made up lines, that does not currently exist.

The main goal of the Greenground map is to look at London from the different point of view,  inspiring Londoners to see connections between parks and making up their own walks and cycle loops for recreation and commute. London is a green city and walking from park to park or by the river or canal path could be the best part of everyone’s day.

I very much hope this map could become reality in London transport system one day! 🤞

 

Greenground Map v3

Larger version: Greenground Map v3 PDF

Inspired by National Park City

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Park Connection Map second version

2 min readAs the first Park Connection Map received lot of positive feedback and many wonderful suggestions to include more parks, I designed the second map with 80 additional open spaces and three new lines. I would have liked to fit in even more suggestions, but as you can see below, the map is getting quite busy! Maybe next version will cover even more green ground.🤞

For those who did not see the first version, this is a creative park connection map connecting parks, open spaces and waterways. The idea of the map is to create a green ground network that can be cycled or walked, based on the idea of classic London Tube Map. The aim of this map is to inspire people to spend more time overground and on healthier green infrastructure. 🍃

The six original ‘lines’ connect Royal parks and City parks, link open spaces in North and South London and follow Thames and Regent’s Canal. The three new lines run along Lea and Brent river and create a BeeLine. Suggested by TiCL.me map makers, BeeLine is a corridor of safe havens for pollinating insects linking London’s green spaces and gardens. 🐝

As a seedling of an idea the Park Connection Map gets watered by the inspiring ideas of National Park City and its aim of making London greener, healthier and wilder, with contributing suggestions from outdoor lovers and green organisations. 🌱

 

Greenground Map v2

Greenground Map v2 PDF

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Park connection map in Londonist

2 min readLondonist.png

Lovely M@ [read: Matt] from Londonist shared the park connection map alongside with great suggestions to his readers for the long weekend. His article The Greenground: A Tube Map Of Parks And How To Get Between Them highlights the map with a challenge to a reader ‘Imagine a ‘tube map’ showing the parks of London, joined together in ways you might want to walk or cycle.’ and invites to ‘Get out there and explore!’

Helen’s map isn’t intended as a detailed navigational aid, but more as an inspiring prompt to encourage exploration. A walk from Highgate Wood to Clissold Park via Woodberry Wetlands, for example, strikes us as a smashing way to spend a Sunday. Likewise, we can imagine a very pleasant cycle ride from Wandsworth Common to Richmond Park, taking in Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common.

Matt himself is a keen explorer who has taken few outdoor adventures out and about London. He has even compiled his own London Walker’s Tube Map based on most prominent walking routes.

A London Walker's Tube Map by Matt Brown
A London Walker’s Tube Map by Matt Brown

Londonist – Things to see and do in London is an online source to latest news in London, what’s on and events, the best London food and pubs, history and trivia, what’s free and cheap in London. Twitter Account

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Creative park connection map

< 1 min readGreenground Map

 

Idea The idea behind this map is to connect parks using environmentally friendly transport like cycling and walking . The creative ‘greenground’ network is made of six lines – Thames, Regent, Royal, South, City and North which connect parks in similar way tube lines connect stations. The map also suggest outdoor activity points such as kayaking on the canal and swimming in the park. This map idea is inspired by the National Park City Foundation green concept of making London the world’s first National Park City.

Why? This map could help to organise routes in accessible way, helping the green commuter to navigate from park to park in the order they are depicted on the map. Each of the lines could be cycled and walked and Thames line suggest River Bus connection points.

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Highlighted in Mapping London

2 min readMapping London is a project by James Cheshire and Ollie O’Brien who collect, highlight and share best London maps in their independent blog. James Cheshire is a co-author of a book LONDON: The Information Capital featuring many data maps of the city. Both editors, James and Ollie are academics/researchers in UCL Department of Geography.

This week I was thrilled to see they highlighted the London walking maps I’ve been working on this month. Posted by Ollie A Walk in the Urban Woods features three maps with great comments from the team, who like the method of showing just the parks that are the focus as an effective and attractive way of highlighting the walk.

Mapping London really likes the strong design elements of these maps – greens and blues, and plenty of white space to present a decluttered look. You might know some or all of these parks already, if you live in London – but did you know you can link them together efficiently in this way?

Coming from true mapping experts this is a serious praise and really encourages more mapping work in the future! 🙂

Mapping London Twitter Account

MappingLondon