Bodies' Publics / POPS vs Commons
What are POPS?
Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS): publicly accessible spaces which are provided and maintained by private developers, offices or residential building owners. They include city squares, atriums and small parks. The spaces provide several functional amenities for the public.
They are free to enter and may be open 24 hours or have restricted access arrangements. Whilst the spaces look public, there are often restraints to use (GiGL, 2023).
What is Common Land?
Common Land is privately owned land with 'Rights of Common' over that land, most commonly to graze animals.
First enshrined in law in the Magna Carta in 1215, Common Land traditionally sustained the poorest people in rural communities who owned no land of their own, providing them with a source of wood, bracken for bedding and pasture for livestock (FfCL, 2023).
What's the problem?
With local authorities stretched to pay for essential services, there is a pressure to sell off buildings and land. We see libraries converted into private gyms and school playing fields sold off to leisure and housing companies. We face the question of which parts of our modern city should remain in public ownership (MoL, 23)?
References
Commons definition from Foundation For Common Land.
What's the problem, asks Museum of London.
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