The History and Development of Liverpool's Early Public Parks By
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The History and Development of Liverpool's Early Public Parks by carol e Barnes A Master's Dissertation, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Arts degree of the Loughborough Universi ty of Technology September, 1988 Supervisor: Dr Michael Reed, M.A., L.L.B., P.H.D, F.R.HIST.S. Department of Library and Information Studies @ C. Barnes, 1988 LIS! OF PLANS III . LIS! OF ABBREVIATIONS IV v INI'RODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE. The development of the town of 6 Liverpool up to the year 1860 CHAPTER ~. The call for 'People's Parks' 26 CHAPTER THREE. The planning of the parks 45 CHAPTER FCXJR. The creation of the parks 64 CHAPTER FIVE. The development of the publ le parks 78 <X>NCLUSION 95 BIBLIOORAPHY 103 Page Plan of Liverpool and the Pool, 1650. 10 Chadwick's Plan of Liverpool, 1725. 13 Benson's Plan of Liverpool, c1860. 21 Plan of Liverpool, 1807 (Roper and COle). 37 Plan of the Prince's Park now in progress near Liverpool. 50 Messrs. Hornblower and Andre's Prize Plan for the Sefton Park. 58 Prince's Park, 1988. 89 Newsharn Park, 1988. 90 Stanley Park, 1988. 91 Sefton Park, 1988. 92 11, A.A.S. Archi tectural and Archaeological Society B.P.P. British Parliamentary Papers H.S.L.C. Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire L.C.P. Liverpool Council Proceedings L.R.O. Liverpool Record Office iv I would like to thank my supervisor, or M. Reed, for his help and guidance while writing this dissertation. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my typist, Mrs. Helen Sprawson, and Hr F. Spiegl and Ingrid Ramnes of Scouse Press for permission to reproduce the plans of Liverpool. v In this rocx:lern era, when new towns are carefully pre-planned on paper, attempting to take all sociological requirements into consideration, and older established towns and cities are re-built to meet present needs, it is easy to take the provision of parks and open spaces for granted. Parks and playgrounds perfor.m a valuable role in our cities, providing the residents with fresh air and space in which to relax, walk, admire the scenery and floral displays, indulge in a favourite sport, play games or just to sit and watch the world go by. Yet only 150 years ago, such facilities were not widely available to the general public. Using the city of Liverpool as an example, this study examines the development of the first public parks, the reasons for their emergence, the way in which they were planned and created, and whether or not they fulfilled the needs that they were designed to meet. It also considers the present state of those parks and assesses the role they play for today's urban dwellers. SUch an investigation into the history of Liverpool and its public parks draws on a variety of different sources. In order to realise the urgent requirement for public parks, one must be aware of the sudden speed wi th which the town of Liverpool expanded, and the problems this rapid increase in size precipi tated. There have been many general histories written about Liverpool which give a good outline to the town's growth, but extra depth and dimension can be added by consulting a detailed history of the town such as that produced by J.A. Picton,l as well as examining successive town plans, summaries of census statistics, conterrporary newspaper articles and directories, reports on the town's 1 public health and housing conditions by both the Town Council and Parliament, as well as articles by members of local historical societies and students' theses. The local Record Office at Liverpool Central Library has a wide range of material concerning the town's history and, more specifically, on the public parks - guide books, maps and plans, detailed estimates for the park designs, council records for the acceptance of tenders for individual contracts, local newspaper articles wi th a call1.JCligning tone claiming to represent the opinions of 'the people', accounts of council expenditure, letters concerning the administration and governing of one of the parks, as well as more general comnentaries on the ci ty containing references to the parks. The local historian using Liverpool's Record Office will find a comprehensive sheaf catalogue with entrIes listed under author, title and subject for his convenience. The individual Branch Libraries also maintain local history collections which cover a surprisingly wide range of topics, and provide valuable background information on nineteenth century Liverpool and its population. In addition, the microfilm unit at Liverpool's Central Library has a good selection of eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers as well as Gore's Liverpool DirectorY,2 and both this unit and the Pi lkington Library at Loughborough Universi ty of Technology hold a collection of Bri tish ParI iamentary Papers on microcard, which contain details of the various reports made concerning the public health and the need for parks. The Acts of ParI iament used in this study were found at the Comnercial Library at Liverpool's Central Library. Perhaps one of the most vital sources for this study were the parks themselves. A walk around each park reveals nruch about Victor.ian aesthetics, their theories 2 on the composition of a beautiful landscape, as well as their ideas on leisure and recreation. By using this wide range of source materials, individual fragments of information can be pieced together to fonn the whole picture. Thus the history of the publ ic parks in Liverpool can be traced fran the earl iest national call for 'Public Walks' in the report of a Parliamentary Select Conmittee,3 the call carried on by a local canpaign for 'Peoples' Parks', through to the purchasing of land for the purpose, the arranging of contracts for the design and building of the parks, and on to their completion and ultimate use and popularity. To gain a cooplete picture, this study includes a whole chapter on the parks in the twentieth century. It reveals how the parks in Liverpool continued to develop in the first half of this century, but how, at present, they seem to be in the doldrums. This chapter has been included in the view that the present situation and condition of the parks may be 'food' for the local historian of the future. In making this study, the amount of information available on all of Liverpool's public parks - the city now has ninety-six parks and playgrounds 4 - proved to be so great that the area of study had to be confined to the five original parks. These include Sefton Park, Stanley Park, Newsham and Shiel Parks, and Prince's Park. This latter was not originally a public park in the strict sense, as it was owned privately rather than by the COrporation prior to 1918. However, its creator and O\o.Iller, Ri chard Vaughan Ya tes , recogn i zed the need for such a fac 11 i ty and allowed access to a section of the park by the public. The inclusion of Prince's Park in this study is due to its importance as the first planned park in Liverpool to allow the public access, and also as 3 its layout set a trend and pattern which was to be iml tated by the municipal parks twenty years later. 4 1. Picton, J.A. Memorials of Liverpool, 2 vols, 1903. 2. Gore's Liverpool Directory was one of the first annual directories in the world, being published in 1766. Initially a street directory, it gradually expanded to include local statistical data, e.g., census summaries, and shipping information. In 1813, cummulative annals were published, which continued until 1940. Towards the end of its life, the directory was published as Kelly's Directory. 3. Report of the Select Committee on Public Walks, B.P.P., 1833, vo1.XV, p.337. 4. AIros, F.J.C. Use of ~ Space in Liverpool, 1970, p.S. S The fortunes of Liverpool seem to have declined during the last few years, yet until this present depression, the city had a history of continuous growth stretching back to its medieval origins. The visitor to m:xlern Liverpool will see a sprawling urban mass much like any other city, but with a long line of docks running along the northern bank of the River Mersey revealing the days of former glory. The buildings near the waterfront tell of the city's Victorian prosperity - the India Buildings, the CUnard Buildings - both names recording the city's links with the shipping trade. But the visitor to this area over a thousand years ago ~uld have seen a very different environment. J.A.P. MacBride in his paper Toxteth Park. site of the Sefton Park and Surrounding District believed the whole of the area around the Mersey and the North west to be one large forest at the time of the Roman invasion and for centuries afterwards. He quotes Mr. Herdman who wrote a history of Liverpool - The first objects that present themselves in evidence are that sttmps or roots of the trees of this extensive forest have been found at the present lOOuth of the Mersey, at low water on each side of the river. 1 It is not known exactly when the area first began to be cleared, but prior to the Norman Conquest, land including the site of the present ci ty formed part of the Royal Demesne. Following the Conquest, Liverpool as part of the' land between the Ribble and the Mersey' was granted to a succession of Norman noblemen.