‘Parklet’ campaigners urge Londoners to reclaim car spaces this weekend

This weekend sees the People Parking Day campaign keenly suggesting that capital dwellers take to the streets to hijack their nearest car parking bay and turn it into something lovely.

With an estimated 1 million car parking spaces in London, People Parking Day – which is actually taking place on both Saturday September 25 and Sunday September 26 – wants you to make a mini ‘parklet’, in order to reclaim car parking spaces, especially for the two-thirds of families in inner London who don’t actually own a car.

The campaign’s founder Brenda Puech set up her first ‘parklet’ near her home in London Fields in 2017. ‘I didn’t have a car, and I wanted to show how a parking space could be used for something else,’ she told us at the time. Puech, who wants the spaces to be used for socialising and strengthening bonds between communities, added: ‘In Hackney, where I live, there are more than twice as many households that don’t own a car as ones that do. Yet nearly all our kerbside space is devoted to car parking. I couldn’t shake off the feeling of what a waste of precious space it was.’

This weekend's action will include a family bike ride on Saturday, called the ‘Tour de Parklets du Nord’, looking at parklets in Hackney & Islington on two wheels, meeting at 1pm at 45 St Paul St, N1 7DJ.

The London Parklet Campaign is looking to see one parking space on every street turned into a parklet. The best-designed parklet from this weekend will win £100 and be judged by leading designers from the Victoria & Albert Museum, Sam Brown and Heather Whitbread.

Read Brenda Puech's full story here.

And why not read some more hot parklet content.