Park Life
The creation of public parks revolutionised our ancestors’ leisure time, says Sue Wilkes
Sue Wilkes explains how the creation of public parks revolutionised our hard-working ancestors’ leisure time
The February 1865 issue of The Lancet told how the “great unwashed” of London could be seen walking on the “dusty and town-dried grass” of St James’s Park in Westminster at weekends, while “ragged children” played with the ducks in this “pleasant retreat” surrounded by the smoke of the city.
St James’s had been open to the public since the 1660s, but it took a popular movement that grew up in the 1830s to unlock the rest of Britain’s parks to Sunday afternoon visitors.
In the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution and the enclosure of many common spaces, workers had few opportunities to escape the grime and dirt of towns and cities. Open moors, forests and commons had been fenced off or built over, and many village greens where people once played cricket had disappeared. For example, the silk-weavers of Coventry used to play football and cricket on a large open space (part of the former royal manor of Cheylesmore). But they lost access to their playing fields in 1798 when the Prince Regent sold hundreds of acres of the land to the Marquis of Hertford, who enclosed them and cut down the beautiful avenues of trees.
The Fight For Health
Social reformers, including the MP Robert A Slaney and James Silk Buckingham, began to promote the benefits of public parks. Accelerating population growth had exacerbated the problem of dirty towns. Sanitation was totally inadequate, and drinking water was laced with killer diseases. The cholera epidemic of 1832, for example, bereaved people from all classes. Slaney not only argued that the working class would be healthier if they exercised, but also that better facilities for them would help prevent civil disorder.
A House of Commons select committee on open spaces and public walks (1833) highlighted
the lack of open spaces in many large towns. The working class could not “walk out in decent comfort with their families” to improve their health. Witnesses argued that workers would spend all of their wages in “drinkingshops” on their day off if they had nowhere else to go.
Dr James Kay (who later became the baronet Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth) reported to the committee: “At present the entire labouring population of Manchester is without any season of recreation, and is ignorant of all amusements, excepting that very small proportion which frequents the theatre. Healthful exercise in the open air is seldom or never taken by the artizans of this town, and their health certainly suffers considerable depression from this deprivation.”
Workers who wanted to enjoy fresh air on Sundays often walked miles along muddy turnpike roads just to reach the countryside. In Liverpool, the only places available for recreation were St James’s Mount, the two cemeteries, and a riverside walk at the Pier Head.
In London’s teeming metropolis, the public had partial access to the royal parks. Penny Magazine reported that “Green Park and Hyde Park… are open to all classes. St James’s Park
‘Workers who wanted to enjoy fresh air often walked miles to the countryside’
has lately been planted and improved with great taste, and the interior is now opened, as well as Kensington Gardens, to all persons well behaved and properly dressed.” However, there were large areas like the East End with no pleasure grounds. And Primrose Hill, a popular resort for workers in the summer months, was threatened with enclosure.
As the enclosure of common lands continued apace, a fertile mix of municipal funding, private philanthropy, and charitable subscriptions nurtured the first public parks. Lancashire led the way in 1834 when Preston Borough Council enclosed part of Preston Moor, partly for new housing but also to create a new public park. The moorland was drained, trees were planted, and a new lake was created.
At Derby, wealthy industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Strutt gave the city over 11 acres of land planted out as an arboretum (see box). Once open, admission charges defrayed the arboretum’s running costs, although members of the public were admitted free on Wednesdays and Sundays (the gates were closed between 10am and 1pm on Sundays because of divine service).
Local Pride
Another government inquiry (1840) into the appalling health issues faced by town dwellers led Parliament to set aside £10,000 to help fund public parks. But civic pride played a more important role in the movement.
In Manchester, the public raised £35,000 (including £20,000 from workmen’s committees) for three parks: Peel Park, Salford; Queen’s Park, Harpurhey; and Philips Park on the Bradford estate. When these parks opened in the
summer of 1846, all three were equipped with amenities such as playgrounds with swings (possibly the first children’s play facilities in parks in Britain). Brightly painted ‘gymnasia’ were provided for men and boys, featuring parallel bars, horizontal beams and climbing ropes, and areas were set aside for sports and games like archery, quoits and skittles.
However, not everyone welcomed the new parks. One writer to the Manchester Courier in 1846 declared that the city’s three parks “are doing a great harm to the surrounding district of Manchester, by being open all the Sunday during the time of divine service. The Sunday School scholars are neglecting to attend their schools, and they are a great inducement for others to neglect attending… churches and chapels of all denominations.”
Other critics argued that the ‘wrong sort’ would invade these public spaces, and the uneducated masses would just damage the trees and flowers. Others objected to ratepayers’ money being used to maintain the parks, when towns still suffered from poor sewerage and other necessities.
Meanwhile in Cheshire, Birkenhead Park (1847) was the first public park in Britain fully funded by a municipal authority. In 1843 the Birkenhead Commissioners bought over 200 acres of land, half of which was for the park. Houses were built on part of the remaining land. The park, which was designed by Joseph Paxton of Crystal Palace fame, cost some £120,000, and with its lakes, ornamental bridges, and Italianate and Gothic-style lodges inspired the layout of Central Park in New York.
Parks had a variety of uses and themes. Some (like Derby Arboretum) concentrated on botanical education, and at Sefton Park a huge Palm House was home to exotic plants from far- off lands. Architecture also played an important role in each park’s character. Terraces, drinking fountains, Chinese pagodas and teahouses, temples and monuments were important focal points. Other parks concentrated on geometrical, formal walks along floral bedding displays ablaze with colour. Their recreational facilities ranged from boating lakes and bowling greens to fun fairs and brass bands.
Indeed, Victorians loved listening to music. Roughly 10,000 people turned out to hear the band at Queen’s Park in Manchester on a Sunday afternoon in June in 1856. The first bandstands, known as ‘bandhouses’, appeared in the early 1860s, but sadly many of these historic structures disappeared during the late 20th century.
However, ordinary folk sometimes felt unwelcome in these public spaces. The same article in The Lancet reported that the “working classes were seldom seen” at Kensington Gardens because of its air of “self-created exclusiveness”, preferring Victoria Park and Battersea Park.
For The Public Good
The 1871 Public Parks, Schools and Museums Act made it easier for people to give land for these purposes. Local authorities had embraced the concept of public parks, and in the 1880s there was a great flowering of municipal pleasure-grounds in places like Crewe, Leicester and London. Public parks were seen as valuable assets, which could attract visitors and boost tourism.
Unfortunately, public parks suffered during both world wars. Their flower borders were used for growing potatoes and other vegetables, and some parkland was set aside for allotments. Few new parks were built in the First World War, while the Second World War saw park bandstands stripped of useful iron, and gates and railings ripped up for their metal.
Later, the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act increased public access to the countryside, and in 1951 the Peak District became the first designated national park. There are now 10 in England, as well as 3 in Wales and 2 in Scotland.
The 1970s witnessed a fresh look at open spaces, as postindustrial landscapes were transformed into parks in places like London’s Docklands. Even disused railway lines became linear parks.
However, changes to council funding led to parks suffering years of neglect and decline, because their provision has
‘The Second World War saw bandstands stripped of iron’
never been a statutory duty. Fortunately, organisations such as the Heritage Lottery Fund helped to regenerate public parks in the late 20th century.
Sadly, austerity has left public parks facing an unprecedented cut in funding. However, according to a report released in 2018, the UK’s parks and green spaces provide health benefits worth over £34 billion every year. Perhaps it is time to ring-fence the funding of public parks – and cherish those that remain.