Historically, the lower Thames was a wide river flowing through a flat marshy landscape with some higher ground, as at Richmond and Greenwich. It was then enclosed, progressively, with near continuous frontages of buildings in the City and at such riverside villages as Chelsea,Twickenham and Hampton. It also had riverside palaces set in gardens and parks. The advent of office and residential towers in the twentieth century caused the riverspace to become more gorge-like. Too-often, the towers were 'pepper-potted' in two senses (1) they were scattered like pepper (2) they stand like tall pepper-grinders on a table.
The opportunity exists for a landscape approach to the morphology of London's river, with the hills and valleys formed by buildings with green roofs and green walls. Central London can have a new landscape. It needs guiding principles but should not be unduly prescriptive. The main requirement is that each project team should explain how the proposed building will impact upon the wider urban landscape.
There may also be places where the design of greenspace can take the form of hills and slopes. Something of this approach can be seen:
Stave Hill and Gallions Hill Downstream from Central London. They are not well known and did not receive the design attention they deserved. They could and should have been works of landscape art comparable with Charles Jencks' landform designs.
