What is your neighbourhood?
Wilton Way, Dalston
How can we then (re)define the boundary of our neighbourhood? Is the 15 minutes walking distance still a factor? Is a neighbourhood something we can really measure in time or miles? Is a neighbourhood something we can define with physical boundaries?
One of the first gift I received from Alessandro before moving to London it was the tote bag “I love Hackney”. He already knew I would fall in love with this neighbourhood, and he was right. Our first place in London was a share flat in Dalston, a refurbished warehouse in the heart of the quiet Wilton Way, two steps away from Violet, one of the best bakeries in town. Everything I needed was within walking distance, 5 min to work, 10 minutes to Dalston Junction station and Ridley Market for my weekly grocery shopping. A walk through London Fields and I was right in Broadway Market to buy fresh bread and fish. Dalston Curve Garden was my favourite spot for lunch breaks and London Fields was my local park for walks and pic-nic with friends. What I considered my neighbourhood was included in a radius of 15-20 min by walk.
The very first idea of neighbourhood I have experienced in London reflects Perec’s idea. In his words: What is a neighbourhood? […] the portion of the town you can get around easily on foot or...that part of the town you don’t need to go, precisely because you are already there. […]
Back at that time, I was leaving in a metropolis, experiencing everything the urban life could offer me and yet I was part of a walkable and vibrant piece of town. Whenever I think about my first flat in London, I can recall the feeling of belonging to a place and the richness of experiences I could access on my day-to-day life. That same sense of belonging made us decide on settling our routes in east London.
After a few years spent in my beloved Wilton Way, we moved in a one bed flat on Regent’s Canal, on the junction between Broadway Market and Pritchard’s Road. The flat was within the same borough and not far away from our previous apartment, but the way we experienced the area and moved around the neighbourhood changed. The centre of our walking radius shifted slightly and coincided with our new home. Likewise, what we considered our neighbourhood started to expand its temporary boundaries beyond the 15-20 min radius and blend its boundaries.
It is worth noticing that the new walkable radius didn’t replace the previous one, instead it overlayed, creating a network of known and new destinations: it was an additional layer of experiences to the already established local life. In the weekend, Broadway Market became our main destination for grocery shopping; London Fields became a home for us, an outdoor space, an extension of our living room. Sunday mornings were spent at flower market in Columbia Road; pleasant walks along the canal would lead us east to Victoria Park and west to Angel.
As architect and resident, I observed a change in the perception of proximity: after moving flat, previous destinations, favourite shops, restaurant and pubs were still included in the map of places we were willing to reach by walk.
The logic behind this phenomenon is the geographical knowledge and spatial awareness we build while experiencing the city. When we move from one place to another we rely on the mental map of our environment which is stored in our brain. Every map is dotted with familiar places, grey areas we don’t want to go trough and paths and routes to move around.
At the neighbourhood scale, the more places you add to your map the more intricated the network of paths become and suddenly, places that looked apart from each other are tied together. We can then state that the perception of proximity is strongly related with the familiarity of a place: when you know an area, the perceived distance shortens, and you are willing to walk longer distance.
How can we then (re)define the boundary of our neighbourhood? Is the 15 minutes walking distance still a factor? Is a neighbourhood something we can really measure in time or miles? Is a neighbourhood something we can define with physical boundaries?
In planning terms, the 15 min neighbourhood - which you can find in all the agenda today, especially after the isolation that many people experienced during the pandemic- is a valid concept to express the vision of a mixed-use and complete piece of town, where residents could get access to all their needs. The proximity of services, like convenient shops, nursery, post office and GP, are fundamental to guarantee a good quality of life and the success of a place.
For architects and planners, the idea of a mixed-use neighbourhood it’s embedded in the design approach, but it hasn’t always been the case. Many are the pieces of city that have been designed as satellites of the city centre: suburban areas with no services within walking distance.
Broadway Market
Just a few months before the pandemic I moved farther east in my current flat in Fish Island Village, Hackney Wick. That was the time I had to readapt my habits and reshape my daily life in a historical moment when avoiding public transport was strongly recommended and offices encouraged us to work from home. Neighbourhood life - with social distancing rules - was the only thing we had been left with.
My new way of living influenced once again my thoughts about space, neighbourhoods and their relationship to the city. Living in a strategic location, on the Hertford canal, between Victoria Park and Olympic Park, made me firmly consider the importance of access to public realm and open spaces and the benefit these could have on mental health and well-being.
Walking along the canal at lunch breaks, gathering on the public realm for a chat with neighbours after work, meandering through streets, bridges and paths represent a firs layer of complexity in a network of pedestrian routes and experiences of the place. I validated the importance to live in a walkable neighbourhood where you can not just access all your needs but also find a sense of stay.
The pandemic was also the time when I realised that I couldn’t defined my neighbourhood with a temporal boundary. My neighbourhood has a stratification of meanings and proximities. It’s at my doorstep: the convenience shop, the deli and the brewery downstairs; it’s within walking distance: everything I can reach in 15 minutes; it’s local: every familiar places that I go to, my favourite bakery, deli and market.
Neighborhood is the place you live
Neighborhood is the place you can work
Neighborhood is the place you make encounters
Neighborhood is a place you identify with
Neighborhood is a place you are proud of
Neighborhood is a place where you build a community
Neighborhood is the place you belong