That one dude is flying a drone.
Do we really envision a future where he’s not wearing a black suit and glasses?
I love the idea of building a community around the old runways, it leaves a reminder of what used to be there etched into the urban landscape.
The idea of restoring old rivers is pretty cool too, the “perfect” solution would be to go back as far as possible and turn the whole area back to nature, but if they’re gonna keep it a city holding onto the runway layout is a tolerable second best.
It’s looking like Boris won’t stand for re-election, so this is a last hurrah for one of his favourite pipe dreams.
Would we see cutting-edge design in suburban living, or houses built by developers for the maximum profit? I know what I’d bet on being the most likely outcome.
Boris Island might offer decent train links, but it can’t compare to Heathrow’s proximity to the major motorways.
I should imagine that something similar to what happened at Stapleton airport in Denver will happen.
There will be grand plans and ideas and none of them will come to pass. The hotels next to the airport will still be booked by mistaken travelers and bad travel agents and will rapidly degenerate to hookers, drugs, and working poor housing (maybe less likely in the UK, since there’s at least a pretense of a welfare state there still).
However, since it’s the UK I can also see that the land would be sold in a sweetheart deal to a nice man who happens to attend the same club as the minister in charge (and who, it will later be revealed, purchased a lovely overseas retirement property for said minister). That land will then be crammed with hundreds or thousands of shoddily-built, cramped, ugly houses with the minimum of services. People will buy them because that’s all they can afford and at least there are train lines into Central London.
I don’t know why you jump immediately to the notion that houses will be cramped, shoddy, and cheap places that only the poorest can afford…
I personally jump to the notion that anything built would be cramped, expensive, and only within reach of the relatively rich who will then drive out anyone remotely poor by driving up local property values, rent, and prices.
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