ABSTRACT
Parks had an important role to play in attempts at social engineering—bringing people of various social classes together in a new kind of public space. The evidence available for the ability of the park to unite diverse visitors and to effect any observable improvements in either their public behaviour or their physical health is variable. The significance of the entrance design of the park is examined as an aspect of boundary maintenance—an important indication to the user about where the park began and ended and its relationship to the adjacent landscape. The focus of many local authorities moved away from the provision of basic sporting facilities (bowling, tennis and cricket) and elaborate, formal planting schemes to envisaging the spaces in a more imaginative way—as didactic places that offered the potential for citizens to experience aspects of their city’s history and civic memory. Regulating the park progressed from being the duty of the park-keeper to becoming the obligation of all users as ideas about socially responsible, active citizens emerged.
