File:Still Waiting for a Nice Place to Sit.jpg

English: Yes, a Tottenham bench that's been on my Flickr pages before. (Please scroll down.)

In the whole scheme of towns, cities and streets how important are benches and other places to sit? The late William H. Whyte (Holly to his colleagues) thought they were very important.

On 5 December 2017 the website of the Project for Public Spaces (in New York) had a blog headed: Still Waiting for a NIce Place to Sit. Anyone interested in this and linked issues may like to read and follow this website. Below is a quotation from the blog.

The first step to evaluating the health and vibrancy of a space might be to sit down. That is, if you can.    Today, more than forty-five years have passed since Holly Whyte issued a call for more and better seating in New York City in his essay, “Please, Just a Nice Place to Sit.”    Written in 1972, the piece decried the failure of local designers and architects to provide comfortable and usable spaces. Noting features like sawtooth-edged rails which preclude comfortable sitting in public spaces throughout the city, Whyte’s call to action showed that the best and most well-loved spaces around the city were those that were the most “sit-able.”    Whyte took readers on a journey around the benches and ledges of the city, examining places like the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the New York Public Library as powerful places for sitting and socializing. The places that were the most sitting-friendly were the most sociable; and the places that were the most sociable were the safest.    Holly Whyte implored the city to change zoning rules to encourage the creation of more sitting space, calling for 'as many feet of sitting space as there are feet in the outer dimensions of the property.'    By becoming a “front-row seat” to the city, with inviting and engaging spaces for people to meet or watch day-to-day life unfold, plazas and other spaces can take advantage of the activity that tends to cluster around their entrances and on street corners.    A space can improve through the seemingly simple assurance that ledges can actually fit the behinds of the people that need to sit, and that there are amenities like food, trees, and water features nearby to both shelter and entertain.    The way people sit determines the way they interact; the availability of seating draws people to a space, and it can be the force that brings strangers together to talk.".

§ The blog has some links to articles and video clips by Whyte and his colleagues. Here's one where Holly Whyte talks about: "the wonderful invention of the moveable chair". § My album of photos and a few comments about benches.

§ Link to download: Benches for everyone. Solitude in public, sociability for free. Research by the Young Foundation