People's Parks

This book identifies the main national and international influences on the development of municipal and other public parks in nineteenth-century Britain, relating these influences to the design and use of parks and clarifying the significance of the achievement. Municipal parks made an important contribution to the urban environment, developing within a social, economic and political context which profoundly affected people's attitudes towards recreation. The promoters of parks wanted them to facilitate education and entertainment, and they reflected this in their design, buildings, statues, bandstands and planting. Towards the end of the century, disused inner-city burial grounds were transformed into the open space much needed for public recreation. There are detailed sections on park development, design and use, a summary of main relevant legislation, and a chronological gazetteer of the earliest municipal and other public parks, with details of their size and how they were created and the name of their designer. The book is fully illustrated with contemporary plans, photographs and lithographs.

• A highly readable account of the design, development and use of parks in Victorian Britain
• Entertaining survey of the traditional features of public parks - everything from the Pergoda and the Bandstand to the Drinking Fountain and the Urinal
• Not just about the big London parks: lots of pictures are of smaller parks and arboretums in towns all over Britain