Urban Back Lanes

Posted on September 10, 2024

If you wish to discover the character of a city, then you must study its back lanes.

I have studied several cities casually, professionally, and academically, and in each case, my knowledge and understanding of a city were enhanced by taking periodic strolls down lanes and alleys. Full disclosure: I am an inveterate urban waste salvage seeker. Salvageable items are, for the most part, found in back lanes when they are not left out on the front curb, so I spend more than the average amount of time in back lanes. My goal? Building and irrigation supplies for my spouse’s scratch-built greenhouses and urban agriculture endeavors.

Let's consider the history of urban development as it relates to back lanes, then explore their application in the development of our city. We’ll make a few remarks about the current state of back lanes and the forces seeking to redevelop them, especially as the premium on urban space escalates, presenting an opportunity to establish the green movement in this context.

Back lanes, historically speaking, do not get much attention in terms of scholarly research. In fact, as a unique element of the urban landscape, they receive almost no mention at all. Our best clues to the development of back lanes are found in the discourses surrounding the development of medieval towns and cities. My own contention is that the earliest depiction of streets and alleys in a city comes from Çatalhöyük in Turkey, around 6200 B.C. (What can I say? The map precedes the written word by quite a margin, and don’t get me started on ancient cuneiform cyphers.) For the purposes of this discussion, however, we shall assume that utility passages for people, animals, vehicles, goods, and services have always been part of the city. We shall further assume that the separation and stratification of these passages into the variety of lanes, streets, boulevards, and highways of our present experience was a slow process, one that accelerated beyond all expectation and complexity in the last one hundred and fifty years.

The City of Calgary maintains over twelve hundred kilometers of back lanes, approximately seventy-two percent of which have gravel surfaces. Of course, more are added every year as the city grows. It is an epic, if largely unsung, endeavor to maintain back lanes, a feature they share with many kinds of municipal infrastructure. Despite their ubiquity, back lanes have come under greater scrutiny in recent years. We are all familiar with the ongoing debates surrounding back lane residences and over-the-garage apartments and suites, but what is harder to recognize are the prevailing economic and social conditions driving these developments in our city, and perhaps in every city.

Although this fact hardly needs repeating, it is important to realize that space in the city—indeed, all urban space—is at a premium, perhaps the highest in the long history of urbanization. This means that space, to say nothing of real estate, in the city has become tremendously expensive and exceedingly hard to procure. So hard to procure, in fact, that for the first time in decades there is a question as to whether or not middle and lower-income earners and their progeny will ever own their own homes. This induces socio-economic pressure that causes people to seek underutilized spaces to supply their needs. As a result, interest in underdeveloped utility spaces like back lanes and alleys is growing.

This development should surprise no one. Marginalization is often the result of socio-economic change, especially in the city. But before we start conjuring late-twentieth-century visions of Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City amidst our fears for the future, let us pause to recognize the opportunity that back lanes present. Certainly, there are possibilities for encouraging positive, sustainable, and even generative residential housing and economic initiatives—attended by the requisite attention to transportation networks and safety/security concerns through appropriate civic and regional legislation and oversight—that would require much more verbiage to discuss than we can apply here. Of particular concern to this blog is the notion of the greening of back lanes and alleys as a response to development pressures in the city.

In my habitual reconnaissance of our city, I have visited many back lanes. Some are every bit the dark, abused, and forgotten utility corridors of our worst expectations. Others are very nearly sublime—urbanized renditions of a country lane replete with grass, swaying trees, and wide views of the surrounding districts, foothills, and mountains. Still others are intensively curated spaces, bounded by well-maintained properties, manicured lawns, and even gardens, that make considerable effort to establish a green moment in a space most people regard as unworthy of more attention than a waste bin. There is now discussion in many quarters about how and in what manner we should approach revitalizing the back lane. For the practicing environmentalist, the opportunity is clear: that strip at the rear of the property can be cared for better, enlisted to grow plants to shelter beneficial insects and animals, enhance water and air quality, and—dare I say it—increase property value. The rising interest in the back lane is a catalyst, a chance to have input into an ignored facet of urban development and ensure that environmental concerns are addressed.

There is nothing wrong with holding that urban space is precious, back lanes included. We make it so when we engage with the city. It is worth remembering that there is an ecology—natural, human, and otherwise—to all spaces and places, even in the most destitute, underdeveloped, yet overbuilt urban areas. Life persists; our lives persist in such circumstances, and even manage to possess meaning and consequence, nurturing compassion, intelligence, and love. This being so, it is high time to address the state of back lanes and how we use them.

Author: 

Shawn Muller 

Communications Team Volunteer