Understanding Urban Parks

Public parks are a treasured feature of the British urban landscape. They have fulfilled many functions in their varied and rich histories—spaces for sport and recreation, arenas for political meetings and demonstrations, sites for courtship and romance or simply places for contemplative strolling. This chapter introduces the study of urban parks through the main themes of the book—parks and public health, parks and the emergence of new forms of normative behaviour and public leisure and civic culture. Each theme is examined in turn and the relevant background provided for the understanding of the significance of these spaces. A note on the sources used provides a rationale for focus of the book as well as an overview of the materials chosen for this study of parks history. Parks may have originally been intended to function as mechanisms of social control, but a more nuanced view is offered here of parks as multifunctional spaces subject to the interests and autonomy of the individual visitor.