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It is being carried out by Burleigh Stone, of Bootle, and Ben Murphy, 28, the expert monument restorer and son of Tom, sculptor of fine Liverpool statues, including Bill Shankly, Dixie Dean and John Lennon.
It is generally accepted that the much larger Birkenhead Park (1847) was the first, created by public subscription, to be open to everyone, making it the first truly public park. But this distinction could have belonged to Princes Park, had it not retained a considerable garden area around the lake for the private use of residents from the surrounding villas.
Even so, its opening ushered in the glory days of public parks. In 1850, the Liverpool Improvement Committee advertised for plans for the laying out of unoccupied land. The result was a proposal to create a “ribbon of parks” around the town (Liverpool became a city in 1880). The scheme was stalled by a lack of finance, but, with the passing of the Improvement Act of 1865, the corporation was able to raise the necessary £500,000. The ribbon was Newsham, Stanley and Sefton Parks.
Of course, there are numerous other parks, gardens and open spaces in Liverpool – a map in 2005 listed 77, including such well known locations as Calderstones Park, St James’ Mount and Cemetery, and Otterspool Park and Promenade.
Among them is Abercromby Square, overlooked by the history department of Liverpool University, where sits Robert Lee, co-author of the new book, Places of Health and Amusement; Liverpool’s Historic Parks and Gardens.
Robert, a father of four from Birkenhead, graduated from Oxford in modern history. He is now professor of economic and social history at Liverpool.
As he records in the book, Liverpool had extensive open spaces before the dawn of public parks. Among these were Ranelagh Gardens, which flourished on the site of the Adelphi Hotel, between 1722 and 1790.
The difference was that these places either charged for admittance or could be entered by invitation only. Also, in 1802, Liverpool had opened a botanic garden on Myrtle Street, and there were zoological gardens at various locations, including one on clay pits in West Derby Road, Tuebrook, between 1832-63.
Other areas became gathering places for those wishing to escape the slums, though they did not always gain favour with the Porcupine, a wonderful journal with a jaundiced view of authority. It described one plot as, “a cheerful scrap, with all the smoke of the whole line of town and docks agreeably uprising on one side, and the vapours of the charnel-house, the healthful exhalations from our dear brethren and sisters departed, steaming upwards on the other”.
But other parks are affectionately regarded in Liverpool’s folk history.
“Princess Park was Paxton’s first independent design and was therefore of great significance nationally and beyond,” says Robert. “It was not until the development of the great Victorian parks, which followed the plan of 1850 for providing a ribbon of landscaped park surrounding the city core, that you find full public access.
“Liverpool was somewhat upset that Birkenhead, a much smaller town, though developing rapidly, was the first urban settlement to establish a public park. It was from then onwards that many other corporations prioritised increasingly the health-related agendas which park provision represented.”
Robert’s co-author Katy Layton-Jones, 29, left Cambridge, with a PhD for research into Topographical Views of British Provincial Towns, shortly before researching for the book. She is now teaching in Oxford.
“People don’t appreciate the sheer size of Liverpool’s parks,” she says. “What you have is true open, green space. They are not stingy. They have a diverse range. Liverpool has pretty much an example of every kind of park created in Britain in the past 200 years. I can’t think of another place that has that.”
Places of Health and Amusement: Liverpool’s Historic Parks and Gardens, by Katy Layton-Jones and Robert Lee, is published by English Heritage, at £7.99.
Source:
Liverpool Daily Post
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