I encountered these benches while undertaking one of the research walks for my MA project. (You can read about the walk in full here, and see the project here)
I put ‘World’s End’ in the title because I always thought it was a fun place name (though surprisingly common, there is a ‘World’s End’ estate just over the river from my home in Battersea, and I encountered another ‘World’s End’ in the form of a pub in Knaresborough earlier this autumn)… However these benches are actually situated somewhere in the nowhere land between Hayward’s Heath and Wivelsfield. For obvious reasons I might struggle to find them again!
I wanted to include them here because they are shit benches. This blog normally celebrates good or interesting benches, but it’s nice to mix things up a bit to include some examples of bad bench practice.
There is absolutely no reason for benches to be this bad. Yes, they’re cheaply constructed by necessity — probably a cash-strapped council or nature reserve attempting to make a walking route more welcoming, or accessible.
Their construction is very simple — just two thick legs with a similarly thick (though actually in the context of a seat, quite thin) strut across the top. These kinds of benches are never going to be gloriously comfortable, but they should offer a tired walker a space to take the weight off their feet. This example at Ladybower shows that…
However, these benches aren’t ever going to be comfortable. For starters, they are raised too high off the ground. They are a place to lean, not meaningfully rest. This practice is (cruelly) justified (by some) in high traffic areas as a measure to prevent loitering or sleeping, but in a forest in the middle of nowhere? Why NOT let a weary walker actually take the weight off their feet? It surely wouldn’t cost any more to construct these as sitting benches?
Secondly, they’re angled — again, this is to make it quite clear that these are leaning benches, not sitting benches. I was actually in doubt as to whether these were even meant for sitting when I first saw them, but they offer no other possible use, and their context (paired, gently facing one another) made it clear that this was the intent.
Then of course, there’s the obvious reason why these benches are shit — they’ve been situated far enough off a rarely-maintained section of footpath that they were inevitably going to become overgrown. And with nettles, the most spiteful of all undergrowth!
These benches are obviously completely un-usable, and even if they were useable, offer a thoroughly disappointing experience. Do better!
(Nice forest view though, I guess)
Comfort of bench: 1/10
Capacity of bench: Maybe 2 people per bench, but realistically only one. (And right now, 0!)
View from bench: 6/10 nice if you’re into ‘the countryside’ I guess
Accessibility of bench: Not great, rough and uneven footpaths with stepped areas.
Adventure level: Moderate. Bit of a walk from any public transit, in the middle of a footpathed, forested area. Finding them would definitely be an adventure!
unprecedented bench enthusiasm 