Public-domain ebook
London parks and gardens
Language: en2,364 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - British·Nature/Gardening/Animals·Environmental Issues
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #76057.
About this book
This work is a comprehensive survey of London’s parks and gardens as they existed within the County of London in 1907. The author begins by noting the lack of any single volume that treats the city’s green spaces as a whole, and then explains the decision to limit the study to the official boundaries of the London County Council. After thanking park officials and a friend who helped with proofs, the book proceeds to a detailed outline that covers the Royal Parks, municipal parks, commons, squares, burial‑ground gardens, historic and private gardens, and even the inns of court. The introductory chapter frames these spaces as essential “bright spots” that provide health, recreation, and aesthetic pleasure to all classes of Londoners, and it supplies statistics on acreage and costs to illustrate their scale and importance.
Written in a measured, early‑twentieth‑century voice, the text combines factual description with a modestly poetic appreciation of urban greenery. Its style is formal yet accessible, reflecting the author’s scholarly intent and the conventions of travel and description literature of the Edwardian era. Readers who enjoy detailed historic surveys, urban planning enthusiasts, garden historians, or anyone fascinated by the social and horticultural fabric of London will find the book’s thorough cataloguing and reflective commentary rewarding.
The opening · free to read
In spite of the abundance of books on London, not one exists which tells the story of the Parks and Gardens as a whole. Some of the Royal Parks have been dealt with, and most of the Municipal Parks, but in separate works. When Squares are touched on, in guide-books, or in volumes to themselves, the Gardens are for the most part left alone, and gossip of the inhabitants forms the centre of the narrative. This is the case also with public buildings and private houses which have gardens attached to them. To give a sketch of the history of the more important Parks and Gardens, and to point out any features of horticultural interest, is the object of the following pages. London is such a wide word, and means such a different area at various periods, that it has been necessary to make some hard and fast rule to define the scope of this work. I have, therefore, decided to keep strictly to the limits of the County of London within the official boundaries of the London County Council at the present time.
I would express my thanks to the authorities of the Parks, both Royal and Municipal, for their courtesy in affording me information, and to many friends who have facilitated my search in historical and private gardens. I am also extremely grateful to my friend, Miss Margaret MacArthur, who has assisted me in the tedious task of correcting proofs. The lists of trees and shrubs, and of plants in the beds in Hyde Park, were kindly drawn up for me by the Park Superintendent, the late Mr. Jordan, with the consent of H.M. Office of Works.
ALICIA M. CECIL.
10 EATON PLACE, August 1907.
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