Sunday, December 2, 2007

The history of Birkenhead Park



Birkenhead Park is acknowledged to be the first publicly funded park in Britain and it's influence was far reaching, both here and abroad. Frederick Law Olmstead based his design for Central Park in New York on Birkenhead Park.It was designed by Joseph Paxton in 1843 and the official opening was in 1847.It was an immediate success and ever since, it's history has been bound up in Birkenhead's history.Birkenhead was essentially an agricultural area until the beginning of the steam ferry service in 1820, which provided easy access from Liverpool, thus opening the Wirral for development and prompting the rapid growth of Birkenhead as an industrial centre.In a period of ten years the population of Birkenhead increased from just over a hundred to one and a half thousand.In 1833, the government approved the setting up of the Birkenhead Improvement Commission while at the same time, the detrimental effects of over-population in industrial areas which led to atrocious living and working conditions was recognised. This led to various reform movements,including that of "The Parks Movement" which upheld the theory that providing open spaces for public use improved the lot of the industrial workforce.The idea for a public park in Birkenhead was first raised in 1841 by Isaac Holmes, a Liverpool councillor who became alarmed by Birkenhead's exploding population figures. The land for the park was bought from Mr F R Price.It was low lying and poor quality, a mixture of fields, marsh and common.It contained a small farm house which was known to be a beer den where illegal dog fighting and gambling took place.In 1843, Joseph Paxton, a landscape gardener in Liverpool was engaged to design and construct the park at a cost of £800.The park was officially opened by Lord Morpeth on April 5th 1847 and it was estimated that it was visited on that day by 10,000 people.There have been many changes to the park over the years but it has always provided an area of rest and recreation to the people of Birkenhead. Recently, it has undergone extensive improvements and it is hoped that it will still provide facilities for leisure for many years to come.

Here are some photos of Birkenhead Park The first one shows the Italian style boathouse over the lake and the second shows the flower bed outside the new cafe area.

5 comments:

Andrea said...

Beautiful pictures and great post.

Lilli & Nevada said...

I love the flower garden, great phots and history

gerryess said...

As a tour guide I would have to watch my laurels. A super contribution with a well constructed description of the park enhanced with an excellent choice of pictures. "My Life" overall is a joy to look at and read. Gerryess

Gledwood said...

I'm glad we had a parks movement back in the 1840s when we still had room to set them up in our town centres!

Gledwood said...

My favourite park in London is St James's ... the smallest and the prettiest