File:With Zena & Larry - Broad Walk, Regent's Park.jpg

English: 22 August 2016. We were heading northwards along Broad Walk to the Regent's Canal.

The Expresso Bar is at the junction of Broad Walk and Chester Road.

Regent's Park is well provided with cafés with outside tables. And with public benches.

Café tables and chairs are a sort of 'time-share' bargain. The customers' side of the bargain is to pay for food or drink and then leave. For the café the bargain is that their staff offer - we may hope - a friendly and helpful welcome and will clear and clean the table. The business may provide toilet facilities as well.

Public benches are free. As are the public toilets in Regent's Park. Both are a vital part of the conviviality of this public space. We went on a hot day and appreciated the chance to rest and chat.

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§ "Pay per minute, not per drink, at Manchester's new coffee shop. Ziferblat, the Russian 'pay as you go' cafe that launched in Shoreditch in 2013, has opened a new branch in Manchester. Everything is free, except the time you spend there." (Journalist Lauren Davidson in the Daily Telegraph 10 February 2015). § New York professor Setha Low tells KCBS Radio San Francisco that accessible public benches are part of: "a Just City and a Vibrant Public Space". Links here. § Link to the location in the photo above with Google streetview. § Website of strongly recommended and fascinating: The Bench Project. And its link on Twitter. § Download free Research 2015 Report by The Young Foundation.

"Benches for Everyone. Solitude in public, sociability for free'.

It includes the Young Foundation's: "findings supporting the development of the Manifesto, and ‘Making Benches Better: Points for Action’. (see report below). Policy impacts include influencing agendas regarding public health, social experiences of living in city neighbourhoods, combating loneliness and isolation, design of public spaces, community safety and policing, supporting participation of elderly and young residents, and addressing hate crime and harassment."

"A bench is an open gesture of welcome, an invitation to linger, however briefly. Benches create the opportunity for recognition through nodding and smiling that is fundamental to friendly communities. People enjoy mingling in public space, loosely interacting with others, and that these casual encounters foster a sense of belonging. This is particularly important because we found that, while all social groups use benches, the heaviest users are people with mental health problems, carers, older people, and those who are unemployed. Seen in this light, the availability of benches becomes an issue of inclusion, an important way of providing equal access to public space to more vulnerable members of the community. For these groups cafes as an alternative meeting place are simply too expensive and homes are often too small and too crowded."