The new London Plan has finally been adopted. Some might be wondering whether the four year undertaking is a missed opportunity to sign up to the growing 15 Minute City movement. I want to argue that London needs no such manifesto, and that in fact the 15 minute city does a disservice to the very idea of the city. Planners and urban designers in the public and private sectors ought to beware its pitfalls. 

 

The 15-minute city is a vision of self-sustainable neighbourhoods that will reduce carbon, increase active travel, and make us healthier and more neighbourly. Yet it forgets the very dynamics that make cities successful and attractive as places of personal opportunity and fulfilment.

Image: Thames Tideway Tunnel © Hawkins\Brown

 

London is famously described as a city of villages, but London’s economic and cultural success as a global city is not attributed to villages left alone to do their own thing. What we see instead are the compound benefits of agglomeration, specialisation and social diversification that comes when these villages – and their inhabitants - interact with each other. Think petri dish on steroids.

 

It was almost twenty years ago that I upped sticks to London. I had moved from the megacities of East Asia, as a stepping stone from suburban Australian life. The simple truth is that I wouldn’t have had the professional opportunities or education, met the people or seen the places that I have, had I stayed in what was a rather neat 15 minute city in my hometown.

 

Agglomeration gives benefits for a wider catchment of people. It allows businesses to find new markets and improve their services. It means that people can access bigger and better things beyond their own narrow geographic catchments: not every neighbourhood will have a V&A, a Wembley, a Westfield, or a Hyde Park. And where do culturally marginalised people find places for their self-expression? Villages have traditionally done a bad job of that. What about employment - how far am I willing to commute to my ideal job? Or even, how far do I need to travel to find a job that matches my skillset? Valerie Pecresse, president for the Ile de France, Greater Paris region, the very city championing the 15-minute city, admits something that is obvious to many people living outside the historic core: “Not all people have the possibility of having jobs within 15 minutes.”