The Changing Function of Victorian Public Parks, 1840-1860

The Changing Function of Victorian Public Parks, 1840-1860

Tastefully laid out in grass intersected by broad gravel walks, and planted with a great variety of trees, shrubs and flowers, botanically arranged. The Arboretum, as these gardens are designated, is much frequented, and has already produced a perceptible effect in improving the appearance and demeanour of the working class.

J.M. Milton, in reference to The Derby Arboretum, State of Large Towns, 1871 (l)

This mid to late-19th century account of an early Victorian (English) public park illustrates the change of function and transformation of the Victorian public park from its original role as an upper-middle class observatory of Nature to its redefinition as this class' s social observatory of the lower classes. Between the years of 1840 and 1860, the public park's role in the eyes of England' s upper crust changed drastically due to the economic and political structure of Victorian England during this time and J.M. Milton's quote reflects this reality.

In the mid-19th century, public parks in England began to emerge in response to a rise in pollution and lack of open space within newly industrialized urban centers in places such as London, Derby, Birmingham, and Manchester.(2) The first public parks were funded by private benefactors who were often times the owners of the factories that created these tainted environments. Influencing this environment-friendly attitude was the increased Victorian interest in the sciences (especially botany) due to nineteenth century contributions of both biologists and writers including the empirical work of Darwin's Origin of Species (1858) and Tennyson's literary work, InMemoriam (1867).(3) Many of these benefactors put money into the development of public walks and parks to give birth to not only a healthier urban setting, though, but also to create a façade that made them appear as altruistic philanthropists who were genuinely concerned with the social welfare of the urban-based factory workers who had little or no open space of their own.(4) However, while these upper-middle Victorian philanthropists appeared to provide the working class with the social and health ideals of the upper crust, the public environments that they created did not reflect this universal ideal of integrating the disparate classes together, but rather they were attempts to maintain the isolation and segregation the Victorian upper class desired.

The English public park from 1840-1860 provides a physical reflection of this Victorian frame of mind in that it exemplifies one of the grave contradictions that defines the upper-middle class Victorian society which boasts for universality of its ideals for all yet is exclusionary toward the proletariats.