LONDON — London Mayor Sadiq Khan withdrew his support Friday for a proposed garden bridge across the River Thames, saying City Hall would not provide the financial guarantees for construction and maintenance costs.
Khan’s move means that it’s very unlikely that the tree-lined pedestrian crossing, an idea dreamed up by British actress Joanna Lumley, will go forward.
There has been no shortage of hype about London’s garden bridge, which would create a floral linking of one area of the city to another.
The designs by Thomas Heatherwick, a famous British designer, were drool-worthy, featuring a gorgeous crossing that linked London’s Temple area, on the north side of the river, to the South Bank district. It would be a new natural space — boasting some 270 trees — with stunning views of the city skyline.
It could be, some argued, London’s answer to the High Line in New York.
But at what cost?
As it turns out, building a luscious garden over a river in the British capital is not cheap — one estimate put the cost at over 200 million pounds ($258 million).
The controversial project has became a flash point in debates over whether London is becoming a place only for the superwealthy. It requires taxpayer dollars to partly fund a project in an area already served by many bridges. At the same time, the garden bridge would be privately run, and organizers said that it would be closed off to the public periodically for corporate fundraising events.
The project received a further blow this month when an inquiry — set up by Khan — recommended scrapping it because it didn’t represent value for money. The author of the review, the Labour lawmaker Margaret Hodge, said that the costs for the project had spiraled beyond initial estimates and that there was a large funding gap that needed to be filled.
