From ‘the people’ to ‘the citizen’: the emergence of the Edwardian municipal park in Manchester, 1902–1912

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article argues that the Edwardian municipal park represents a significant transition from the highly regulated and formal space of the Victorian park. It takes as a case-study Heaton Park in Manchester purchased in late 1901 and suggests that this park represented a transition from a Victorian people's park to an Edwardian citizen's park in which each visitor accessed facilities and amenities appropriate to their individual or group leisure interests. It addresses the comparative neglect of the Edwardian park by urban historians and suggests the importance of the emerging concepts of citizenship and social responsibility.

Municipal Parks versus Glorious Gardens: The Tensions of Inter-Governmental Management of Urban Park Space

“…7 In spite of this legacy, throughout the nineteenth century the view of British parks as improving spaces was on the risea desperate antidote to the apparent disorder of urban life and, echoing Loudon, an important civilising influence on the lower classes. 8 The nebulous moralising around working-class leisure and its associations with "irrational indulgences," so prevalent in the nineteenth century, gave way to the importance of physical exercise as a healthy pastime that could be both morally and physically improving, and also theoretically accessible to all genders. 9 This perception of the beneficial nature of urban parks was well-established in Australian cities by the early decades of the twentieth century -firmly transplanted into the Australian psyche through the process of British colonisation.…”

“We Have Gone Recreation Mad”: The Consumption of Leisure and Popular Entertainment in Municipal Public Parks in Early Twentieth Century Britain

“…The Victorian park had proved to be a significant element in the development of ideas about citizenship. 2 The shift away from recreation to entertainment in public parks marked a move away from concerns about citizenship and the emergence and development of the consumer. This reflected the new primacy of entertainment in the twentieth century city.…”

Haqqani, Nyma; Herrebosch, Nathan; Jackson, Jane; Juma, Ismat; Kanaan, Faten; (2023) Institute for Global Prosperity 2021-22 Master’s Dissertation Special Issue, Part 1

“…He stressed the poor residents of the area did not benefit from the large amounts of money spent on Heaton Park due to the barrier of the tram commute cost to the park the poor could not afford ("Municipal Contest," 1906). Heaton Park was therefore not a park for the people but rather only for those who lived near it or could afford to travel to it -which was mostly middle-class residents (O'Reilly, 2013). Indeed, the earliest parks in UK, such as Sefton Park in Liverpool, abounded in ethnic, class and gender-based inequity of access.…”

“…Others are not as critical, viewing the establishment of parks for rational recreation less as a concerted effort to impose moral imperialism and more of an indirect way of widening the exposure of the working class to different cultural activities (Conway, 1991as cited in O'Reilly, 2019. While rational recreation was a defining feature of the roles of parks in the Victorian period, the Edwardian period saw the role of parks change to a place of more active citizenship including political gatherings and sports activities (O'Reilly, 2013). It can be concluded the appearance of UK public urban parks was motivated by a range of concerns for public health, morality, economic improvement and the existing social order.…”