The greening of the city : urban parks and public leisure 1840 - 1939

O'Reilly, CA

Abstract

Urban parks are a much-loved feature of the city environment. However, our knowledge of the true scale of their impact remains uneven. Much work has been done on their origins and design features but this book aims to extend this beyond the nineteenth century and examines the fuller flowering of these valuable spaces in the early decades of the twentieth century. Encompassing themes such as social and political usage, parks as employers and the dangers posed by such freely accessible spaces, the book examines a range of parks in cities such as Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Leeds, Preston, Hull and Cardiff and challenges the prevailing myths about their meaning for their users. The time-frame for the study spans almost 100 years of unprecedented social, cultural, political and economic changes and allows for the consideration of the expansion and commercialisation of leisure opportunities for the public. Urban parks played a significant role in this - the book places parks firmly in the context of the evolving city and examines the importance of green space to the urban citizen during this most fascinating of historical periods.

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Online Publication Date: May 17, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 3, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 11, 2019
• Publisher: Routledge
• Series Title: Routledge Studies in Cultural History
• ISBN: 9780415720663-(hardback);-9781315866840-(ebook)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315866840
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315866840
• Related Public URLs: https://www-routledge-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/The-Greening-of-the-City-Urban-Parks-and-Public-Leisure-1840-1939/OReilly/p/book/9780415720663
• Contract Date: Feb 25, 2019