The Castlefield Viaduct is a short but vital 'sky garden' amidst a tangle of railway lines, bridges, and viaducts in the oldest part of Manchester. The 330m long Grade II-listed viaduct (1892) carried trains from the old Manchester Central Station until 1969. It remained closed and out of bounds until taken over by National Trust; work has been under way since 2022 with plans to extend the 150m walkway along the full length of the viaduct.

The best known planted railway line is, of course, the High Line in New York, open from dawn to dusk every day, and offering a very different and very beautiful elevated perspective of the city.  The first stage opened in 2009 and the 1.5 mile walk was completed in 2014. What makes it truly spectacular is the inspired perennial planting by Piet Oudolf who "translated the magic of the self-seeded landscape of the derelict railway into what you see today". 

This week on the Post we have gardens and planting on abandoned railways lines. The first project of its type was the Promenade plantée or Couleé verte René-Dumont along the former Vincennes railway line viaduct in the 12ème arrondissement of Paris. It is 4.7km long and was opened in 1993. It provides a peaceful green or, in autumn, golden walkway ten metres above street level. There are plans to extend it to link up with the disused circular Petite Ceinture which features in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu.

The first of the David Mellor shops was opened in London in 1969 and they have been places of beauty and usefulness ever since, establishing a new style of retailing in terms of display and merchandise. However, it is even nicer to go to Hathersage in Derbyshire where David Mellor lived with his wife Fiona MacCarthy, author of the groundbreaking biographies of William Morris and Eric Gill. His son, Corin, carries on the business based in the Round Building cutlery factory which was built in 1989 on the foundations of a gas holder. There is a mini-museum of Mellor's designs, factory tours, the wonderful shop, and a cafe with a view of the beautifully designed factory. (Hathersage also has a delightful open-air heated swimming pool.)

David Mellor's design skills and interest in street furniture led to many government commissions including traffic lights - 25,000 of which are which is still in use - and a controversial square post box (both mid-60s), plus bus shelters, benches, bollards, and minimalist stainless steel cutlery produced in huge quantities for government canteens and NHS hospitals. 

David Mellor is perhaps best known for his ranges of knives, forks and spoons some of which were designed in the 1960s and 1970s and have become modern classics. For example, 'Pride' was designed in 1953 when he was still a student and has been in continuous production ever since. (Mellor also designed disposable plastic cutlery in 1969 for Cross Paperware which sold in its millions.)

One of David Mellor's first major commissions in the early 1960s was for silverware for British embassies, made with the aim of demonstrating the best of modern British design. The range included the Embassy teapot (1963, V&A), candlesticks and toast rack, as well as Embassy cutlery, all clearly influenced by his travel scholarship to Sweden and Denmark in 1952.