ancient cities

584 Parks
Industrial cities such as Glasgow, Liverpool,
Manchester, and Birmingham developed networks
of public parks of various shapes, sizes, and
designs in an attempt to ameliorate the worst conditions
of urban air pollution and to offer the
opportunity for more healthy and rational recreation.
Public parks also provided the means for
local authorities to demonstrate their success,
wealth, and status to the world. Among these
highly landscaped, prestige parks were Birkenhead
Park, the first publicly funded park (opened in
1847) in Liverpool and Kelvingrove Park (opened
in 1853) in Glasgow, both designed by Sir Joseph
Paxton (1803–1865) of London’s Crystal Palace
fame; others were Philips Park in Manchester
(1846) and Stanly Park in Liverpool (opened
1870), providing the location for significant municipal
museums and art galleries.
These Victorian parks ranged in size, design, layout,
and features. They were constructed in different
areas of the city serving different populations.
Sporting activities and children’s play parks, alongside
specimen planting and water features, became
almost universal elements of most urban parks. The
nineteenth­century parks were perceived as ideal
landscapes that would benefit urban society.
However, this philanthropic and paternalistic concern
had as much to do with enlightened selfishness
as altruistic benevolence; the provision of public
parks always reflected a number of discourses (medical,
moral, political, economic, cultural, gender,
etc.) concerning the need to improve not just the
environment of cities but the behavior and condition
of the predominantly male urban working classes.
Parks Around the World
American cities from the mid­nineteenth century
began to experience similar problems of
expansion and growth as those in Europe. Urban
public parks in the United States owe a great debt
to the influence of Frederick Law Olmstead (1822–
1903). Inspired by the parks he visited on a tour of
Britain in the 1850s, as well as the ideas of the City
Beautiful movement, Olmstead went on to design
Central Park in New York and a network of parks
in Boston known as the Emerald Necklace, as well
as parks in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and
Mount Royal Park in Montreal. Olmstead not
only designed a number of landmark parks but
also cemented the idea that mixed­use green space,
accessible and available for all urban citizens, was
a right that would benefit all classes as well as cities
as a whole.
In France, the redevelopment and renovation of
Paris between 1852 and 1870 under Napoleon III
was directed by Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann
(1809–1891). The new boulevards, squares and
buildings, and metro and sewerage systems are
rightly acknowledged as fundamental to Paris’s
claims as the capital of modernity. Not as well
known is the role of Jean­Charles Adolphe Alphand
(1817–1891), an engineer and the landscape architect
responsible for the design and construction of
many new parks, which added more than just a
green embellishment to the concrete landscape of
the new Paris. The public parks he contributed as
an intrinsic element of this modern designed and
planned city include the Bois de Boulogne, the
Park Monceau, the Bois de Vincennes, Buttes
Chaumont, Montsouris, and the gardens of the
Champ­de­Mars below the Eiffel Tower.
The tradition and history of park building in
cities throughout the world varies to some extent
with culture and politics. The influence of colonization
has had an effect on the spatial and architectural
landscape as well as economic, social, and
political development of cities in Latin America,
such as Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and Mexico City,
all of which have historic green spaces as well as
more recent urban parks to provide some access
for their expanding populations. Nonetheless,
authorities in cities as diverse as Tokyo, Dubai,
and Johannesburg express similar sentiments in
attempts to expand the number of parks as well as
their variety and distribution across the social and
physical landscape of the city, with the aim of creating
a greener environment for all the current
communities as well as future generations.
A General Rationale
The creation of networks of urban parks in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe
and the United States represents a concerted
attempt to enhance not only the lives of the
expanding urban populations but also to make cities
more attractive and beautiful places to live and
work. For cities to be successful, they needed to be
more healthy and sustainable as human habitats,