Gardens -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; Parks -- England -- London
Many details are of necessity more or less the same in each. The London
County Council is responsible for the greater number, and in every
case they have thought certain things essential. For instance, the
band-stand; no park, large or small, is considered complete without
one. It is hardly necessary to mention each individually, though some
are of the ordinary patterns, others more “rustic” in construction (as
in Brockwell Park), with branching oak supports and thatched or tiled
roofs. Every park, except Waterlow, which is too hilly, furnishes ample
area for games. Cricket pitches by the dozen, and space for numerous
goal-posts is provided for, in each and all of the larger parks.
Gymnasiums, too, are included in the requirements of a fully-equipped
park. Swings for the smaller children, bars, ropes, and higher swings
for older boys and girls, are supplied. Bathing pools of greater
or less dimensions are often added, the one in Victoria Park being
especially large and crowded. Then the larger parks have green-houses,
and a succession of plants are on view all the year round. The
chrysanthemum time is one specially looked forward to in the East End
districts. Iron railings and paths, of course, are the inevitable
beginnings in the creation of a park, and more or less ambitious gates.
It is only in the larger ones, such as Finsbury, Victoria, Dulwich,
and Battersea, that carriages are anticipated. Though there is a drive
through Brockwell, and the steep hill in Waterlow might be climbed, and
the avenue in Ravenscourt is wide enough, it is evidently only foot
passengers who are expected, as a rule. Fancy ducks and geese attract
the small children on all the ponds, and some parks have enclosures for
deer or other animals. Sand gardens, or “seasides” for children to dig
in, are also frequently included.
The larger parks are self-contained--that is to say, the bedding out
and all the plants necessary for the flower-gardens are reared on the
premises. There is a frame-ground with green-houses attached, where the
stock is kept and propagated. Of course, much depends on the soil and
locality. In some parks the things will stand the winter much better
than in others, where fog and smoke and damp work deadly havoc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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