Читать книгу Walking in London. Park, heath and waterside - 25 walks in London's green spaces онлайн

12 страница из 42

Successive monarchs (and senior courtiers), at least until the 18th century, saw London’s hinterland as an opportunity for sport, by which they meant hunting and frolics. Great tracts of land were maintained for that purpose, either as formal gardens such as those around Hampton Court or rougher lands over which men could gallop, nearby Bushy Park an example. But tastes, and pressures on royal time, changed, and the lands became less necessary to their daily needs.

The eleven Royal Parks range from small gardens (and one cemetery) to the famous large expanses such as Hyde Park and Richmond Park. Save for Greenwich Park in the south-east, these are all situated in the wealthier areas of the capital. Much of London’s growth during the 19th century, often in cheap housing where crime and disease were rife, took place elsewhere. Many developers no doubt saw open space as just a lost opportunity for profit.

It took government action to create London’s first public park, Victoria Park in the east end, in 1842. But such a top-down approach was needed less as first the Metropolitan Board of Works and then the London County Council, with smaller boroughs beneath it, took on the responsibility of providing open space for London’s residents.