Merrett Houmøller Architects and Colin Priest won the commission through a 2017 open competition run jointly by Waltham Forest Council and Create London. The vibrant pedestrian and pet gates are part of the council’s £1 million Making Places initiative, an endeavour to deliver creative projects across the borough.
The experience of The Highams Park begins sooner than expected, as visitors walking toward the three different entrances see the park beyond before crossing the threshold into its wide and undulating landscape. This is an important historical and contextual spatial narrative and a unique quality of entering Humphrey Repton’s design; instead of a ‘wow’ gateway moment commonly found in other metropolitan parks this sequence offers gradual gentle relief as you move through enhancing the enjoyment and purpose of the park.
The three gateways comprise of crisscross steel gates, inspired by Repton’s drawings found in Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening published in 1795. Taking visual cues from his watercolours and working with local community interest groups (The Friends of Highams Park, The Highams Park Forum and the Highams Park Planning Group), the gates are each accented differently to aid wayfinding in the park.
