Victorian Parks, Cemeteries, Gardens, and Other Green Spaces

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A Select Committee on Park Walks had suggested in 1833 that providing parks for the poor of London would encourage them to give up drinking houses, dog fight, boxing matches and other debasing pleasures, and instead take up walking, ball games and other healthy pursuits.... — Adam Hart-Davies, p.125

The park movement grew gradually during the 1830s and 1840s as initiatives were taken by central and local government, by benefactors, entrepreneurs and communities. The first park to be called Victoria Park was developed in Bath and opened by the young Princess Victoria in 1830. The Royal Victoria Park was a public park but it was not a municipal park as the land was leased and not owned by the local authority. In London the second Victoria Park was created in the East End, Primrose Hill near Regent’s Park was secured as a public open space, and Parliament took the first steps towards forming Battersea Park. — Hazel Conway, p. 9

London Parks

Chelsea Physics Garden
Clissold Park, Stoke Newington
Green Park (3 views)
Hampstead Heath (a dozen views)
Hyde Park (9 views)
The Italian Garden in Kensington Gardens
The Italian Terraces, Crystal Palace, South London
Postman's Park, London EC1
Regent's Park
Vauxhall Gardens
Victoria Embankment Gardens (2 views)
Victoria Park
Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster

London Cemeteries and Crematoria

The Victorian cemetery was created as a response to a problem, and is as important in the history of urban hygiene as other reforms that have received greater attention: it is also significant in the histories of landscape design and of architectural taste, and is not a separate subject in the context of a consideration of Victorian urban fabric. — James Stevens Curl, p. 284

It took the example of the spacious, landscaped Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, opened in 1804, to transform the English cemetery movement into a campaign in the 1820s. — Lynn Pearson, p. 5

London Cemeteries for which no materials are yet online

Hoop Lane (Jewish)
Putney Lower Common
St. Mary's (Roman Catholic)

Parks outside the Greater London area

Birkenhead Park, Wirral, Merseyside (the first publicly-funded public park)
Ellington Park, Ramsgate (a review)
Guildford Castle Grounds, Guildford, Surrey
Roath Park, Cardiff
Roberts Park, Saltaire, near Bradford, Yorkshire
Saltwell Park, Gateshead
Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey (race course and golf club)
St John's Gardens, Liverpool

Cemeteries and Crematoria outside the Greater London area

Cemetries Abroad

Gardens and gardening

One of the greatest social changes of the 19th century was a massive exodus from the countryside, with the nation developing an industrial rather than an agricultural base. As the economy improved, the population rose steadily, providing a cheap and plentiful labour force. The working class gradually abandoned the farms and fields to work in mills and factories, while the middle classes joined professions like banking and insurance. Home ownership became increasingly common among this class who grasped the opportunity to develop fashionable gardens around their new houses and villas. — Anne Jennings, p. 3