The Landscape of Public Health - FOLAR Symposium 2024

3 Bermondsey Beautification 1920-1940 Robert Holden has long been interested in the work of Alfred and Ada Salter and in this presentation he recreates many different aspects of local life in Bermondsey the early 1900s, from noxious industries, the rise of infectious life threatening diseases, squalid housing and cramped living conditions. Entering this bleak life are Alfred and Ada Salter working via different means to bring about positive change to the lives of local people. Alfred was local doctor and became Bermondsey MP and Ada worked to improve housing rising to be Mayor of Bermondsey; amongst many other initiatives she set up the Beautification Committee, and implemented an extensive tree planting scheme on new estates and streets in Bermondsey. They were both Quakers. How many of the issues they identified 100 years ago still exist today? Robert Holden is a landscape architect with forty years of landscape practice overlapping with three decades of teaching, including two decades at Greenwich and then a short stint at Istanbul Technical University before retirement in 2014. Brought up in Preston he is an adopted Londoner and currently manure monitor for the Gunsite Allotments in Dulwich. He has written widely on technical matters. NEXT 4    • The Landscape of Public Health - FOLAR Sym...   PREVIOUS 2    • The Landscape of Public Health - FOLAR Sym...   About this series of talks The Landscape of Public Health is possibly one of the most important subjects FOLAR has tackled - not just health, but how public open space and designed landscapes have been used in the past for the benefit of the general public. As populations have becomes increasingly more urban in the 20C, landscape architects and managers working today in this area as academics and practitioners can demonstrate, with confidence and research-based evidence, to landscape and associated professions, local and central politicians, and the public, what can be achieved today, and how this can be done, and how long term management needs to be part of this healthy uplift for the population. The most important benefit, apart from nurturing a generally healthier population, is reducing the differences in health between the most economically deprived populations and those better off . The speakers at this event consider how public parks have been designed and used to benefit health, historically and in more recent times of pandemics, how the health and environment of a local area in south London was improved in the early 20c through the enduring endeavours of a dedicated couple who turned to politics to succeed. How biophilic design is used to sustain good mental health; and a consideration of what are the design elements that enable quantifiable good health outcomes for all. The Landscape Institute collection at MERL: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collection... More information about FOLAR and joining: https://www.folar.uk Speakers: Dr Jan Woudstra, Robert Holden, Paul Rabbitts, Jamie Liversedge and Professor Catharine Ward Thompson Chair: Tim Gale November 2024 at The MERL and online