Why It Matters
Recreational Space
Summary
We have measured the number of recreational spaces in or near a given area.
Definition
| Dataset | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Five nearest recreational spaces to postcode | Shows the five nearest recreational spaces to your selected postcode, and what they are |
| Count of recreational spaces in borough | Shows the number of recreational spaces in the borough of your selected postcode |
| Count of recreational spaces in postal sector | Shows the number of recreational spaces in the postal sector of your selected postcode |
Why the metric matters from commercial inhabitant’s perspective?
The relative amount of recreational space accessible within a given area matters for commercial inhabitants, traditionally for two reasons. Firstly, a well maintained and accessible leisure environment has been shown to improve comparable trading revenues by 20-40% due to it having the power to attract more people into a given area. As open spaces for recreation are often destinations for urbanites in and of themselves, they have been shown to encourage customers to nearby retail spaces, particularly other leasure-based businesses such as cafés or bars, engendering consumer buying behaviours commonly associated with the entertainment sectors.
On the other hand, for commercial inhabitants, unless situated within a designated commercial zone recreational space is likely to prevent certain office-based businesses without a considerable pull factor for consumers from being able to benefit from the agglomeration benefits that other businesses located in proximity to leisure space often enjoy. However if a business can offer employee benefits as a result of building relationships with nearby recreational spaces, this could be seen as a means of improving viability.
It is also important to keep in mind protected recreational spaces when if looking to expand one’s building as planning constraints can often hinder this process.
Why the metric matters from the residential inhabitant’s perspective?
Leisure and recreation are incredibly important to your physical and mental health as they offer an opportunity to make friends, refresh or relax your mind, pick up new skills and develop talents, as well as offering places for exercise and fresh air intake.
As a result, accessible recreational spaces must be considered as a fundamental building block of any successful built environment. In neighbourhoods with above average levels of access to recreational space, there is a good body of evidence to show that it improves residents’ aptitude for physical activities, provides an opportunity for social interaction and serves various other functions that improve the quality of life in cities such as reducing perceived stress levels.
Aside from the benefits to overall wellbeing and health, access to leisure spaces has two further effects, namely that it often provides an uplift in the value of houses that benefit from being walkable proximate to a park or other recreational space from the visual amenity they can afford to those who overlook it.
Secondly, so long as planning policy seeks to protect and promote recreational space, it will remain as a protective factor that will commonly frustrate any nearby (re)development that is likely to inhibit its utility.
General Commentary
As a general rule, though not without exception, the percentage of residents with easy access to recreational space in a given area is normally proportional to the distance an area is from central London. The theory follows that as the price of land decreases as in line with one’s distance from central London, it becomes more politically and economically permissible to dedicate land towards non-productive, but environmentally and socially beneficial uses. That said, there are certain recreational and leisure spaces, such as nightclubs or cultural institutions that are concentrated in areas closer to the centre of the city.
As mentioned, in London, planning policy sometimes obliges authorities to promote and protect leisure spaces, as repeated studies have shown that the benefits of such spaces to the local community and the local environment outweigh the economic and social cost of their upkeep. Whilst the value an individual may place on them differs and is largely impossible to truly measure, the value uplift of residences proximate to such spaces can be taken as evidence of Londoners’ preference to live near, or overlooking them.
Due to the relatively inflexible nature of recreational spaces, sub-cultures often form within their vicinity as is evidence by the numerous indoor and outdoor leisure activities, that take place near them. These sub-cultures often then end up being associated with a given space and have been shown to impact on people’s perceptions of them, and therefore influence the type of people that are drawn to particular leisure venues.
Recreational space scores are useful for benchmarking and comparing areas with each other. They are also a useful indicator for other factors such as the physical and cultural health and activeness of a community.
Trivia
The right to leisure and recreation is so important that it is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
History
Humankind has always practiced recreation whether it was considered as a formal alternative to work or not. Leisure in itself has expanded alongside the longevity of human life, and has historically been more associated with those more financially secure, as the less time one must spend ensuring their own physical or economic survival, the more time they can commit to recreational activities that do not necessarity provide subsitence or pay.
Games were often played as sports or as a means of training for war, with running, swimming, ball games, and fighting popular across the ancient world. Music, drama and dance were popular amongst all of these civilisations too; the Ancient Egyptians having complex orchestras, and the Greeks and Romans famous for their theatre. The Athenian philosophers were very keen to point out the importance of leisure as essential to the healthy growth of society, and the Greeks loved to show this off in their Ancient Olympiad.
The Romans are renowned for their love of the amphitheatre, a precursor to the modern sports stadium. But much of this “hedonistic” activity was outlawed in the west by the advance of Christianity during the Middle Ages, or at least not many sources remain to discuss it in detail. Though idleness was a sin, so activities like hunting—great training for war—were encouraged, but poaching was a big no and could result in execution.
Gambling, music, dancing and drinking of course remained though officially banned by the church, and art and board games flourished, as well as games like mob football. Play returned as a means of education during the Renaissance, and parks, and clubhouses and practice fields for certain sports were cultivated for the wealthy.
Industrialisation shaped the experience of leisure hugely, fragmenting people’s time into more rigid sections specifically dedicated to work, play and sleep. Competition became more formalised and rationalised along the lines of various scientific discoveries such as Darwinism, about which sport was seen as a means of preparing one for the future by ‘toughening them up’. Teams with followings developed, with the help of the 1833 Factory Act, which stipulated 12 hour work days and work finishing at 2pm on a Saturday, allowing for workers to attend football matches at 3pm.
The twentieth century saw more technologically driven leisure with radio, cinema and television all developing, as well as modern music, dance and sporting competition.