The abundance of pseudo-public spaces, namely outdoor, open and publicly accessible locations owned and maintained by private companies in London is alarming. To this day it's largely unclear what regulations people passing through privately-owned 'public' land are subject to, and where members of the public can view those regulations.

The Guardian conducted an investigation, contacting landowners of more than 50 major pseudo-public spaces in London, asking an identical set of questions: what restrictions are in place covering users of your land, how are these enforced, where can members of the public see a list of these restrictions, and what conditions are there in the relevant planning agreements regarding public access to your land? Also inquiring whether a series of public activities – including peaceful political protest, non-commercial photography, non-commercial artistic performances and rough sleeping – would be permitted on their site, the Guardian received responses from just 2 out of the 50 contacted private owners. 

In partnership with Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC (GiGL), the capital’s environmental records centre, Guardian Cities has produced the first ever comprehensive map of pseudo-public spaces in the capital. The underlying dataset is publicly available. Readers are invited to help contribute information on both new and existing sites to help track and monitor land ownership in London. The dataset behind the map has been made public, and can be accessed on the GiGL website and the London Datastore.