Many of our best loved parks and open spaces are of historic importance. The nationally important ones are registered, others are part of Conservation Areas and many contain listed buildings and structures.
These special places are the heart of our urban environments yet the Public Park Assessment (2001) report showed that our urban parks are in serious decline.
English Heritage has signed up to the 'Manifesto for Better Public Places' as it is committed to improving our historic parks, cemeteries, garden squares, other public spaces. English Heritage works with Department for Communities and Local Government, Heritage Lottery Fund and the other agencies and organisations such as GreenSpace in championing our historic open spaces.
Looking After Our Public Parks
English Heritage believes that skilled staff are key to the regeneration and long term success of our public parks and green spaces. Many of these parks are of national and local historic interest.
English Heritage’s The Park Keeper provides an insight to the history of these staff, and the botanic and historic gardens skills deficit is mapped in new research.
PLACES OF HEALTH AND AMUSEMENT: LIVERPOOL'S HISTORIC PARKS AND GARDENS
This English Heritage book by Katy Layton-Jones and Robert Lee explores the rich legacy of parks in Liverpool, from the forgotten open spaces of the 18th century town, through the pioneering creation of a 'ribbon of parks' in the 19th century, a period of decline after the Second World War, to the situation today. Attractively illustrated with archive and contemporary photographs and drawings, the book shows how parks have been used and enjoyed, how they have changed to meet new challenges and ideas, and how the arguments used to justify their creation in the 19th century are being used again to spark a revival in their fortunes and future.
Places of Health and Amusement
URBAN LANDSCAPE DESIGN IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Complementing the Garden Museum’s 2011 exhibition From the Garden City to the Green City, the Landscape Institute hosted a series of six talks examining the development of the green city, from Hampstead Garden Suburb to the present day. The lectures are supported by The Twentieth Century Society, Landscape Forms and English Heritage. The lectures will be published in 2012.
Further notes on post WWII designed landscapes on the Register of Parks and Gardens is included in Conservation Bulletin No.42.
