Urban Green Space Archives - The Gardens Trust

History Hub

Articles found in Topic Tag: Urban Green Space

Topics

Jumpers for Goalposts: How Public Parks Built the Beautiful Game

The rise of football in Britain coincided with one of the great social innovations of the nineteenth century – the creation of public parks.

Topics

A History of British Football Playing Surfaces

The first football pitches of the 1800s were scythed or grazed but over time evolved into highly maintained landscapes incorporating drainage, heating and new technology such as Astroturf

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Council Sports Fields from the 1970s

Landscape Design Consultant John Harris recounts his career in Wigan Council’s Landscape Department helping to design and maintain designed landscapes

Topics

Gardens for Healing

The idea that gardens can support healing is not a modern innovation, but a recurring theme within the history of designed landscapes.

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Playgrounds: a short history

Designed to improve our health and community cohesion, playgrounds began as ‘gymnasia’ for all to use.

Topics

A potted history of public parks

One of the greatest ‘inventions’ of the 19th century was the public park. Today, we all use them – and love them – but what do we actually know about them?

People

Robert Marnock

Robert Marnock (1800-89) was a Scottish landscape gardener, designer, curator, nurseryman, head gardener, garden writer and editor who designed many gardens across Britain.

Places

Sheffield Botanical Gardens

Established to provide recreation and education for the growing middle classes, Sheffield Botanical Gardens was first designed by Robert Marnock in 1834.

Periods

Interwar Gardens

The Interwar Years (1918–1939) marked a pivotal shift in garden design, as landscapes responded to both personal grief and broader cultural transformation.