Rescue garden archaeology before the Olympic equestrian event in Greenwich

The space in front of the Queen's House is the site of the only design by Andre Le Notre for a British park or garden. Le Notre was the greatest garden designer and landscape architect of the seventeenth century.

The space in front of the Queen's House is the site of the only design by Andre Le Notre for a British park or garden. Le Notre was the greatest garden designer and landscape architect of the seventeenth century. Archaeological research should be done before the land is sacrificed to the the 2012 Olympic horses.

Andre Le Notre was the greatest landscape architect of the seventeenth century and, many would say, of any century. He completed only one design in the British Isles. It was for a parterre in Greenwich Park, London. The current proposal is to use this parterre for the 2012 Olympic Equestrian. Two conclusions surely follow:

1) the parterre garden and its periphery should have a full rescue archaeology investigation before any work of any kind begins

2) the Le Notre parterre garden should be fully restored if the Equestrian Event takes place here, because horses and stadia damage land.

LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games,  say:

– the ground is to be ‘improved’ and strengthened
– to soften the ground there will be some decompaction/aeration
– as part of recovery programme there will be reseeding or returfing
– tree roots would be protected with materials such as woodchip

What will improvement, strengthening, decompaction and aeration do the archaeological remains? They are no way to treat a site of Grade I Garden Archaeological Importance. The first step should be a non-invasive geophysical survey using a magnetometer. This can map buried building foundations (eg of fountain basins) and can even plot the location of pre-historic paths in certain circumstances. The Le Notre parterre was cultivated during the Second World War but (1) the cultivation is unlikely to have been deep (2) it may well have been limited to the flat area of the parterre (3) evedince may survive below the parterre and near Le Notre’s banks, which are the areas most likely to be damaged by the equestrian competition arena.

Let us hope English Heritage supports the call for an archaeological investigation before further damage is done.

Andre Le Notre's plan for the parterre in Greenwich Park, with handwriting in his own hand. The earthworks were implemented and survive in part. An archaeological investigation is necessary to discover the extent to which the paths were built, and what survives of them.

Andre Le Notre's plan for the parterre in Greenwich Park, with handwriting in his own hand. The earthworks were implemented and survive in part. An archaeological investigation is necessary to discover the extent to which the paths were built, and what survives of them.

The embankment forms part of Andre Le Notre's earthworks in Greenwich Park

The foreground embankment forms part of Andre Le Notre's earthworks in Greenwich Park

4 thoughts on “Rescue garden archaeology before the Olympic equestrian event in Greenwich

  1. Christine

    Great photographs! And an interesting essay on skyline composition….

    Are there any explicit expectations from the [rescue] archaeological investigation? And if so what are they? Or is the archaeological investigation purely exploratory? How does a rescue investigation differ from a general archaeological investigation?

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  2. Tom Turner Post author

    See Wiki on rescue archaeology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_archaeology but the main points I have in mind are (1) do the work soon because if it is not done soon the evidence will fall to the bulldozer (2) do the job a less carefully than would be the case if the evidence was not threatened (3) fund the work from a non-traditional source (ie the developer). Olympic development teams always seem to be able lay their hands on limitless funds, unlike archaeologists.

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  3. Marian

    Fabulous photographs and how wonderful to have the original drawing. Does the Landscape Institute involve itself in putting pressure on the right spots to get such work commissioned?

    Reply
  4. Tom Turner Post author

    The Landscape Institute has a very very cautious and very very slow procedure for developing what are called Position Statements. For fear of causing offense, they hardly every say anything about anything. I don’t think I have ever seen a press report about the LI saying something of interest or relevance to debate on matters concerning the landscape.

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