Abstract
“The great outdoor living room of the city”: A survey essay on the thoughts and aims of
urban park development in the late 19th and early 20th century
The city park was a constant in the ever-changing city and an effective antidote to the
feverishness of city life. The current emphasis on the benefits of parks is understandable in
the light of environmental issues such as, inter alia, earth warming threatening humankind’s
existence on the planet. By the 1970s, there was already a substantial canon of literature on
urban parks. Since then, a new generation of urban environmental historians has emerged
with new interests and approaches. It is therefore prudent to revisit the thinking and aims
inherent in the early establishment of the urban parks of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
in Britain and the United States of America.
The aim of this paper is to explore both the views of middle and upper class urbanites in
Britain and the USA on the mostly harsh living conditions in their cities, labelling them as “evil”;
and the establishment of parks being seen as one solution to alleviate said conditions. The paper
also focuses on how ideas on “nature”, “progress”, “health”, “morals”, “romanticism”, “social
control” and “middle class respectability” underpinned views on public parks as pristine rural
environments that should be transferred to the city. Lastly, the way landscape designers echoed
the ideas and aspirations of the middle class in the design of parks is considered.
Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation led to a lack of connection between urban residents
and previous rural/natural areas and their benefits. The perception was that this, in turn,
contributed to the decline in moral and physical health and the eroding of culture. The rural
environment was idealised and seen as inherently good and superior to city living. If transferred
to the city, it could create an ideal urban environment. Fredrik Law Olmsted, the doyen of
American parks, fully supported these views. By the turn of the 19th century, the permanence
of the city was well established and perceived dichotomy between the urban and the rural
resolved by a hybrid relationship.
As England was the leader in die development of parks, it had a huge influence in the
Western world with many countries tapping into English ideas on parks. However, from the
1850s there was thus a lively cross-fertilisation of ideas on the urgency of park development.
The City Beautiful movement would have a significant influence on these dominant ideas on
parks.
The “problems” to which the provision of parks was expected to offer some relief, were
easy to describe: ill-health, overcrowding and squalor. The reasons for addressing these problems
were various. The breathing space parks could provide was seen as one solution to improve
the health of those living in over-crowded conditions.
During the middle to late 19th century the British government expressed concern about the
lack of exercise amongst its citizens. Initially, the park was seen as the ideal urban space for
contemplative recreation and an escape from the harsh city environment. However, by the turn
of the 19thcentury park advocates called for active recreation. They believed that there was a
connection between poverty amongst the working classes and a lack of fitness. Fundamental
to this was the hope that exercise in the park could contribute to a more productive working
class. By the 1930s parks as spaces for exercise were well established in Europe and the USA..This first era of park establishment in the Western world was heavily influenced by the
interests of the city elite and middle class reformers. They viewed themselves as the keepers of
respectability, “civility” and “civilization” and the driving force behind reform and progress.
The target of “improvement” was the working-class and the ideal place the city parks. By
“civilizing” the masses, there would be fewer encroachments on middle class sensibilities...