Public Parks

Every town in Britain has its public parks, gardens and recreation grounds and these form an important part of many people's lives. The design and development of public parks has been as important to garden history as the great eighteenth-century landscape parks and indeed of far broader social significance. This history of public parks traces their development, identifies the influences that lay behind their design and considers the reasons for our changing attitudes to parks. It looks at the features that give each park its individual character, the landscape, the trees, the lakes, the lodges, shelters, bandstands and palm houses, the statues and the planting, and it considers the role of parks in cities today and in the future. About the author Hazel Conway is an architectural and landscape historian with a particular interest in public parks. She is a member of the Parks Advisory Panel of the Heritage Lottery Fund, is on the Advisory Panel of the Open Spaces Society and is Parks and Gardens Advisor for the Victorian Society.