Is it fair that a critic forms an opinion of a restaurant, a play or an opera based on one visit? Probably not but conscientious restaurant reviewers (I’m thinking of Nick Lander in WeekendFT) make multiple visits before delivering judgement. Today I am going to form an opinion based on visits over more than thirty years.
Frank Banfield Park was laid out in the 1970s and frankly quickly became a bit of a dump, marred by muddy paths and dogshit. In 2008 it was given a major make-over by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, including making some artificial hills that carelessly damaged the roots of some mature trees. This is glossed over in the LBHF seventy-two page report but there is an insight into the astonishing ignorance of the report’s authors.
The newly refurbished park, in partnership with the developer, now contains 115 trees from 21 different species. Most of the larger trees are sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, common lime Tilia x europea, false acacia Robinia pseudoacacia and cherry Prunus spp. which are robust enough to have survived the extensive redevelopment of the park and the damage caused by irresponsible dog owners in the past. Many of the trees have wire mesh guards wrapped around their trunks to prevent further dog damage.
Hamlet knows a hawk from a handsaw; they don’t know a squirrel from a spaniel. But there is one bit of good news, namely that the developer of the blocks of flats at Fulham Reach is responsible for maintaining the park, as a condition of their planning approval. This is better than stipulating that they must install pieces of public art, although they have done that too. Here are three pictures of the park that I took on Friday.
So far, so good; the grounds are well maintained and almost free of litter. However there is one fenced-off eyesore, an adventure playground that has been allowed to fal into disrepair. Maybe it was too adventurous for LBHF?
Film director Christopher Nolan chose John Barry’s Ski Chase when he was on Desert Island Discs.
OHMSS must be one of the best Bond films, despite being a box office flop, due perhaps to Lazenby, and the tragic ending. It also features Louis Armstrong singing ‘We have all the time in the world’, so great music, a good plot, fabulous settings, and not bad acting (Joanna Lumley makes a cameo appearance as one of the mesmerised women in Blofeld’s lair). That mountain lair was the newly built cable car station on the Schilthorn, above Mürren. All the skiing scenes were filmed on the Mürren ski slopes, and there really is a 2000 plus foot plunge into the valley, (mur, wall, Latin, hence Mürren).