Boris Johnson reflects on cancellation of Garden Bridge scheme

Boris Johnson reflects on cancellation of Garden Bridge scheme
Credit: A Davidson/SHM/Rex/Shutterstock

London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Ex-Mayor of London Boris Johnson has elucidated the cancellation of the highly controversial Garden Bridge scheme which left taxpayers with a £43 million bill – as “a pity”.

The Garden Bridge a scheduled but unbuilt tree-lined footbridge across the Thames between the South Bank and Victoria Embankment is mentioned in Boris Johnson‘s new memoir Unleashed. 

Why does boris johnson call garden bridge cancellation a pity?

In a section on the end of his term at City Hall, Mr Johnson said: “Among the many other things I was forced to leave on the drawing board was the Garden Bridge, on which my successor was to spend another £17 million before cancelling it. It was a pity, because it was a truly beautiful scheme, and every city must keep doing new and interesting things. But never mind.”

Mr Johnson makes no connection to the final £43 million bill to the taxpayer, or that only £70 million of private budget towards an expected £220 million total had been raised by the Garden Bridge Trust at the point incoming mayor Sadiq Khan retreated City Hall backing for the project in 2017.

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The failed bridge scheme also gets a mention in the acknowledgements at the rear of the book where Mr Johnson records his gratitude to “Mervyn Davies for bravely championing the Garden Bridge”.

Lord Davies of Abersoch was the head of the Garden Bridge Trust. He was empty-chaired by 

the London Assembly in 2019 when he declined to answer questions about the project. In a 2020 interview, he expressed the bridge scheme: “I look back on it with nothing but pride.”

Mr Johnson’s ex-communications chief Will Walden is also thanked in the text. In 2022, Walden revealed to Radio 4 that the Garden Bridge was “completely impractical” and “was never really going to get off the ground”.

Whilst Thomas Heatherwick earns five mentions in Mr Johnson’s book – all in association with the New Routemaster bus project – the bridge’s instigator Joanna Lumley is not called at all.

Announcing the ill-fated bridge scheme a decade ago, Ms Lumley had vowed it would be “sensational in every way”.

Daniele Naddei

Daniele Naddei is a journalist at Parliament News covering European affairs, was born in Naples on April 8, 1991. He also serves as the Director of the CentroSud24 newspaper. During the period from 2010 to 2013, Naddei completed an internship at the esteemed local radio station Radio Club 91. Subsequently, he became the author of a weekly magazine published by the Italian Volleyball Federation of Campania (FIPAV Campania), which led to his registration in the professional order of Journalists of Campania in early 2014, listed under publicists. From 2013 to 2018, he worked as a freelance photojournalist and cameraman for external services for Rai and various local entities, including TeleCapri, CapriEvent, and TLA. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, Naddei collaborated full-time with various newspapers in Campania, both in print and online. During this period, he also resumed his role as Editor-in-Chief at Radio Club 91.
Naddei is actively involved as a press officer for several companies and is responsible for editing cultural and social events in the city through his association with the Medea Fattoria Sociale. This experience continued until 2021. Throughout these years, he hosted or collaborated on football sports programs for various local broadcasters, including TLA, TvLuna, TeleCapri, Radio Stonata, Radio Amore, and Radio Antenna Uno.
From 2016 to 2018, Naddei was employed as an editor at newspapers of national interest within the Il24.it circuit, including Internazionale24, Salute24, and OggiScuola. Since 2019, Naddei has been one of the creators of the Rabona television program "Calcio è Passione," which has been broadcast on TeleCapri Sport since 2023.