General history
When in the late eighteenth century the distinguished William Roscoe cherished the notion that one day Liverpool could become as beautiful a city as Florence, he could not possibly have foreseen the massive population growth and boom which quickly followed the wealth he witnessed about Liverpool in Georgian times.
While Roscoe affirmed that a great city must develop both culturally and through commerce, the township rapidly expanded as trade routes brought work and the promise of riches. Immigration and passing emigrants crowded into the Victorian dwellings and by 1847 the average lifespan was less than 21 years.
Environmental Health reforms were introduced but by the mid 1850s a clamour grew for "parks for the people" with the realisation that amid densely populated industrial heartlands, public parks could provide "lungs for the city". When Liverpool ultimately embarked on actively reclaiming the ground lost since Roscoe's early proclamations, a small yet significant number of open spaces were already approaching maturity.
Arguably the first public open space in the township was established in 1767, when an impoverished workforce were given labour to fashion a 'pleasure ground' from the quarry spoil alongside 'Mount Zion'. St. James' Mount Gardens were opened as a public walk commanding fine Mersey views from next to the present site of the Anglican Cathedral.
The early nineteenth century brought further open space initiatives, as private garden developments sought to enhance property ventures, notably at Abercromby (1800) and Falkner (1835) Squares, coupled with the founding by Roscoe of Liverpool's Botanic Garden (1802) initially at Myrtle Street, later re-established at Edge Lane (1836). The most ambitious scheme was the 90 acre blend of landscaped park surrounded by Victorian villa and mansion devised by Richard Vaughan Yates in 1842. Parkland designed by Joseph Paxton embellished the prospect of the new properties, introducing a private park, which was also publicly accessible "once the streets are aired". The park became fully public in 1918, as Princes Park.
Although the Edge Lane Botanic Garden and adjacent Wavertree Park (1843) became an enviable public facility in 1846, at this time Liverpool still lacked the scale of open space befitting either its municipal ambitions, or its social need. This was rectified when, between 1870 and the end of the century, some of Liverpool's largest and grandest parks were established. Using Corporation land to the east, and with acquisitions to the north and south, a trio of great Victorian Parks - Newsham (1868), Stanley (1870) and Sefton (1872) were opened. The century closed with the gift of Wavertree Playground (`The Mystery' of an anonymous benefactor) in 1895 and Greenbank Park (1897), totalling nearly a fifth of our present open space resource.
The twentieth century brought a new era of park development, marked by the purchase of the Calderstones Estate in 1902. The next thirty years saw some of Liverpool's most beautiful park landscapes, acquired as once rural estates and properties were relinquished by their families, relocating to less suburban locations. Through astute purchase and generous donation major new open space development included Springfield Park (1907), Walton Hall Park (1913, opened 1934), Harthill (1913), Woolton Wood (1917), Camp Hill (1922), Allerton Tower (1924), Clarke Gardens (1926) and Reynolds Park (1929).
Small scale, local park developments also continued to meet the expansive needs of new suburbs such as Norris Green and Dovecot Parks (1930) and a growing number of 'recreation grounds' were created to accommodate play needs.
The thirties also marked the commencement of an ambitious scheme to create a new coastal open space to serve the City's more mobile population. The construction of Otterspool Promenade (1950) provided both a new amenity for Liverpool and an open space dividend from the disposal of Mersey Tunnel spoil and household waste; a project repeated three decades later to reclaim the future International Garden Festival site.
Less extensive, post war and contemporary park developments have also attempted to respond to population and social change. Land use economics that encouraged coastal reclamation have extended to the redevelopment of derelict or fragmented land in new park and open space developments such as Everton (1989) and Netherley Parks (1991/2). A growing awareness of habitat ecology and the varied benefits of urban countryside have redefined open space to include informal landscapes, while concepts such as Fazakerley Ecology Park and the Loop Line Linear Park now provide highly accessible, robust natural environments within the urban fabric.
Arguably the finest example of urban countryside in the City is not a new park but an old estate. Since 1986, Croxteth Hall and Country Park has represented the City's largest public open space: over 200 hectares (530 acres) of woodland, field, pond, lake, river, garden and farm, which on one site, demonstrates the rich blend of heritage and habitat, recreation and attraction which characterise the City's wealth of parkland.
The English Heritage Register and Liverpool's Historic Parks
Liverpool's key historic urban parks: Sefton, Stanley, Newsham, Princes and Wavertree are all included on the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks as Grade II sites. Sefton is actually a grade II* park. Croxteth Country Park, Anfield Cemetery, Toxteth Cemetery and Allerton Cemetery are also included as Grade II sites. The former cemetery at St. James' Mount is another grade II* site.
Sefton Park was designed by Edouard André (Gardener in Chief, Paris) and Lewis Hornblower (a Liverpool architect) who won a competition in 1867 and a prize of 300 guineas was awarded. The winning design blended the natural undulating topography and two branches of a Mersey tributary to create a landscape in which there was a spinal ornamental watercourse, embellished with rock features including cascades, grottoes and stepping stones leading to a 7 acre lake. Carefully planted woodland clumps sought to create a spacious park landscape with framed vistas revealed from elliptical and tangential pathways.
The park is 269 acres (108 ha) and is the city's largest urban park once known as 'Liverpool's Hyde Park'. Park features include listed statuary, grottoes, gateways and buildings. Statues include full replicas of Peter Pan by Sir George Frampton and the Shaftsbury Memorial (Eros fountain) by Sir Alfred Gilbert. Both are Grade II listed.
Sefton Park Palm House, constructed in 1896, is a Grade II* listed building recently fully restored and refurbished with Heritage Lottery and European funding. The building reopened as a major botanical and events attraction in September 2001.
Stanley Park is arguably the most architecturally significant of the city's great Victorian parks. Landscaped by Edward Kemp, who had assisted Paxton at Chatsworth and Birkenhead, the park features a grand terrace punctuated by imposing shelters with expansive bedding schemes once highlighted by fountains. The 45 hectare park opened in 1870 and contains the Gladstone Conservatory (Grade II) by Mackenzie & Moncur (1899), who had also constructed the Palm House in Sefton Park.
Newsham Park was the first of the celebrated trio of new parks developed to ring Victorian Liverpool. The park, which was based on designs by Edward Kemp, may represent Kemp's first solo venture in public park design. It is surrounded by fine period architecture which was developed to fund the park layout in 1866 and includes the grade II listed Seaman's Orphanage and Newsham House. The latter is the `sumptuous mansion' where Queen Victoria stayed in 1886 and which is still in use as the `Judges' Lodgings'.
Wavertree Botanic Park and Garden is a good example of a mid 19th century public park incorporating an earlier walled botanic garden, extended in the late 19th century. Particular features of the Garden include mid-Victorian (1850-70) geometric planting beds and the two storey Grade II listed curator's lodge (1836-37).
Princes Park was the first public park to be designed by Joseph Paxton (1843). The park was originally a private venture associated with wider development of prime building plots around Paxton's parkland. Public access, though once limited to certain areas (the lake gardens were open only to adjacent residents) gradually became more available. Boundaries adjacent to the lake area are a vestige of this era. The park landscape retains many of Paxton's often subtle design qualities, including views both within the parkland and beyond to the surrounding conservation area.