How can we encourage people to slow down and spend more time outside and in public spaces? Dr Carrie Behar of Useful Simple Trust explains.

Recently, Suella Braverman told us that a ban on laughing gas would stop ‘hordes of youths loitering in and littering parks with empty canisters”. But what if we took a different approach and actually encouraged loitering, or at least lingering, in our parks and public spaces? I’d like to argue that to ‘stand or wait around without apparent purpose’, or to ‘stay in a place longer than necessary because of a reluctance to leave’ is not always a bad thing, and is actually an important component of leading a healthy, connected and more sustainable lifestyle, and something to be encouraged and celebrated in architecture and urban design, rather than vilified. 

Places to ‘stop and rest’ are included as one of TFL’s Healthy Streets indicators. There are so many benefits of loitering/lingering in parks and public places. These include:

So how can we encourage people to slow down and spend more time outside and in public spaces? Jan Gehl talks about the idea of providing ‘soft edges’, to our streets and building frontages, as a way of enabling more active streetscapes. A local example of this is Van Gogh Walk, in Lambeth, where a formerly extraordinary street has been transformed into a pleasant community space, by way of introducing a winding pathway, lush vegetation and play and seating facilities for all ages and abilities to enjoy. On a larger scale, Superkilen Urban Park in Copenhagen provides a multitude of reasons to stop, play and linger, as part of a successful urban regeneration project. Closer to home, a series of public realm improvements around Stratford Town Centre have helped make the town centre more welcoming, introducing brightly coloured murals on the shopfronts to draw visitors into the shops and services clustered around the Broadway and support the navigation around the neighbourhood.

All of these sensitive interventions have the effect of making us stop, pause and look around, helping to foster a sense of community and shared identity, and to welcome flaneurs and loiterers alike.

Members of the NLA Expert Panel on Wellbeing  are exploring the role of design in delivering healthy places and in making a real difference to the emotional, mental and physical health of Londoners. We have identified an opportunity to create a new ‘Wellbeing Framework’ for London. Perhaps potential to stop and linger should be one of the metrics for evaluating the success of a space or place. What do you think?