Understanding historic park designs - HELM

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The picturesque park (1790s–1840s) The picturesque park evolved out of aesthetic theory in the late 18th century. It was characterised by a similar framework to the 18th-century landscape park, but with a less formal arrangement of views and vistas. Famously, picturesque improvement contrasted itself to the smoothness of the landscape park’s forms. There was also a greater emphasis on access into the landscape rather than merely viewing it from key locations. W.S. Gilpin advocated picturesque improvement of regular clumps, for instance by promoting the outlines of promontories and bays through using differently toned foliage to accentuate the recesses. More formal gardens reappeared around the house with Humphry Repton leading the way. Principal features • Plantations with highly irregular outlines rather than just informally placed ovals and circles • Areas of rough woodland or topography valued as visual features • Increasing emphasis on composed scenes, but less on large-scale sweeping views • The house is framed by trees • Reintroduction of garden terraces and other formal features adjacent to the house • Use of more unusual species for individual trees. The Victorian park (1840s–1900) Private parks With the growth of plant-collecting throughout the 19th century, a far wider variety of trees was used in parks often gathered in highly prized specialist pinetums and collections set close to a mansion or detached house. Interest in the technology of horticulture saw the re-establishment of the kitchen garden as a major focal point in Victorian estates, while formal gardens flourished around the mansions. This last period of large-scale park creation came to an end with the agricultural depression of the late 19th century, while the impact of the First World War had a devastating impact on the labour-force available to country landowners. 5
Fig 3 Ashridge, Hertfordshire, gardens around the house laid out to the suggestions made by Humphry Repton in the early 19th century. Principal features • Collections of exotic trees such as Wellingtonia, deodar and atlantic cedars and exotic firs and pines • Scattered exotics were also increasingly used as punctuation marks in the parkland • Extensive formal garden layouts around the principal houses • Widespread avenue planting, often using trees such as Wellingtonia • Rhododendrons, coverts and other features for game cover and sport • Kitchen gardens with extensive ranges of glasshouses. Public parks From the 1830s onwards, local authorities began to address the lack of public open space in England’s growing industrial towns and cities. In terms of acreage, investment and design theory, the urban public parks of the 19th century represent as significant a phase of landscape design as the landscape parks of the 18th century. They are characterised by a cunning use of space to accommodate different uses and character areas within a constrained space. Provision for sports and games was integral from the beginning of the development of public parks. As early as 1835, J.C. 6
Page 1 and 2: Golf in historic parks and landscap
Page 3 and 4: Fig 1 Deer grazing at Bushy Park, W
Page 5: • Perimeter planting mixed fast-g
Page 9: Fig 4 A typical feature of a public

Understanding historic park designs - HELM

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