ABSTRACT
In the inter-war years, London’s public green spaces became centres for noncommercial outdoor leisure. These years witnessed ‘a dramatic transformation of leisure patterns, including the rise of a flourishing outdoor leisure culture’. This marked an important transition in their use, although the actual provision of facilities varied between individual green spaces and cities in the UK. The provision of new sports facilities in the inter-war years was a manifestation of a new outdoor leisure policy that swept the UK. During these years, in London and arguably in other cities, physical recreation replaced rational recreation as the leading use of municipal green space under the influence of a widespread interest in improving the physical fitness of the working classes. Notwithstanding the increase of physical recreation and sport, the municipal authorities and the Office of Works continued to organise non-commercial outdoor leisure like music performances to attract local residents to their green spaces.
