{"id":8985,"date":"2020-01-15T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T22:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=8985"},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:30:16","slug":"london-city-garden-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=8985","title":{"rendered":"London City – Garden Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe<\/a>\u201d \u2013\u00a0a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.<\/p>\n

\n

Garden Bridge Trust <\/strong>\u2013\u00a0UK
\nProject type :\u00a0<\/strong>Bridge design & construction
\nDate :<\/strong>\u00a0Apr 2017
\nCost :<\/strong> \u00a353M (including\u00a0\u00a343M of public funds)<\/p>\n

Synopsis :
\n<\/strong>New York has its ‘High Line’<\/a>, Seoul has its ‘Sky Garden<\/a>‘, Paris has its ‘Promenade Plant\u00e9e<\/a>‘ and London nearly had it’s ‘Garden Bridge<\/a>‘. Elevated, elongated city parks are a\u00a0draw for both tourists and locals alike. An oasis in the urban jungle, these parks are both practical ways of getting around and places of serenity.<\/p>\n

Based on a\u00a0proposal first put forth in the 1990’s by actress Joanna Lumley<\/a> (Patsy<\/a> of ‘Absolutely Fabulous<\/a>‘ fame), the Garden Bridge was to be a footbridge over the river Thames in central London. Linking Lambeth to the south with the Victoria Embankment on the north, the Bridge was to be\u00a0a garden, a footbridge, a tourist attraction and a breath of fresh air in the midst of the hubbub that is London.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Promenade plant\u00e9e Paris – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic – Source: G. Vellut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the proposal struggled to gain traction when first proposed, the project received renewed interest in 2012\/3 when Boris Johnson (then Mayor of London and now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) picked up the idea. Despite there already being two bridges in the immediate vicinity, the Garden Bridge was a unique proposal and could well have been a vibrant contribution to the fabric of the city had things gone according to plan.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately that is not what happened. A 2017 review commissioned\u00a0by Boris Johnson’s successor\u00a0(Sadiq Khan) revealed a shaky financial foundation and the project was cancelled\u00a0before the first pilings were\u00a0driven into\u00a0the ground. Despite politics\u00a0and finger pointing between Johnson and Khan, the seeds of the problems had reportedly been sown long before Khan took office. Perhaps the most significant issue from a Project Management perspective was the failure to establish a clear vision. Although\u00a0it is a nice idea, ‘nice’ isn’t good enough when you are about to spend millions\u00a0of pounds.<\/p>\n

For success a project like this needs a strong vision that can easily be communicated and that can be used to get the buy-in needed. Typifying the problem was a comment from Boris Johnson made in a 2014 interview to the New Civil Engineer magazine. When asked about what the vision was he noted that he –\u00a0“wasn\u2019t really sure what it was for”, other than making a “wonderful environment for a crafty cigarette or a romantic assignation”. Hardly the lofty language of a project with\u00a0a sound vision.<\/p>\n

That lack of vision had knock on effects. Chiefly among those problems was the\u00a0failure to engage effectively with the local communities or other key stakeholders.\u00a0Furthermore that ‘nice’ idea lacked a clear business case or financial model for the bridge’s construction and subsequent maintenance. Although both government and private sector pledged money, the totals committed fell short of the estimated\u00a0\u00a3200M construction cost\u00a0and \u00a33M per year to maintain. Hoping the shortfall could be made up as the project proceeded (the jump off the cliff and hope you pass by a parachute as you fall approach) engineering and design work started. The resulting designs were beautiful, but not beautiful enough to garner the support needed.<\/p>\n

Costs mounted quickly with \u00a31.7M going into remuneration for the non-profit board overseeing the project, \u00a3160K for a\u00a0website and of course the design and engineering costs. Concerned at the state of the project Khan engaged Dame\u00a0Margaret Hodge to conduct an independent review.\u00a0The opening remarks of her summary concluded that “From its inception when there was confusion as to its purpose, through a weak business case that was constructed after contracts had been let and money had been spent, little regard has been had to value for money.”<\/p>\n

Khan’s response was swift and decisive. The project was cancelled with a write-off in the range of\u00a0\u00a353M. Although it certainly was a nice idea, it was ultimately a bridge that went nowhere.\u00a0While Patsy would likely have enjoyed the\u00a0crafty cigarette, I think at the end of the day the project would have left her reaching for another drink.<\/p>\n

Might the project taken a different path had the vision been sharpened? I suspect it would. It is a nice idea and as New York, Seoul and Paris have all shown, there is\u00a0value their to be had.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Contributing factors as reported in the press:\u00a0<\/strong>
\nUnclear vision. Unsound business case. Project governance and financing problems. Failure to engage key stakeholders leading to a lack of stakeholder support.<\/p>\n

Reference links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Dame Margaret Hodge’s independent review report – April 2017<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Failed London Garden Bridge project cost \u00a353m<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. London’s Garden Bridge project officially abandoned<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe\u201d \u2013\u00a0a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world. Garden Bridge Trust \u2013\u00a0UK Project type :\u00a0Bridge design & construction Date :\u00a0Apr 2017 Cost : \u00a353M (including\u00a0\u00a343M of public funds) Synopsis : New York has its ‘High Line’, Seoul has its ‘Sky Garden‘, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,3,42,77],"tags":[138,100,130,132,129,143,93,147],"class_list":["post-8985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-private-sector","category-failed-project","category-project-management","category-why-projects-fail","tag-causes-of-failure","tag-examples-of-failed-projects","tag-government","tag-private-sector","tag-failed-project","tag-project-management","tag-why-do-projects-fail","tag-why-projects-fail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8985"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9979,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8985\/revisions\/9979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}