The new hedge and fence on three corners of the park is part of a plan to protect the grass from people walking diagonally across the Fields. It was kind of obvious that when the railings were removed that people would walk across on the shortest possible route. Even through the shrubberies. The ground was being eroded away and had become quite muddy. Indeed until the Victorians parkified the Fields there had been diagonal paths, not indirect promenades. Gordon Square up near the UCL complex and Euston suffers terrible erosion as people walk desire lines and ignore the decorative paths.
The English Heritage 2009 masterplan allowed for hedges at the corners, but it’s finally gone in – a spikey mix of dog rose, hawthorne and beech. This should look lovely at all times of year – flowers in spring summer, beech leaves in the winter but will takes some years to establish and the fence is there to protect it.
Friends of Lincoln's Inn Fields 