This Gardens Trust talk on June 2 is the last in the Gardens Trust’s 2nd series on Victorian Gardens on Thursdays @ 10.00 GMT. £5. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. Register through Eventbrite HERE
This really is a fascinating insight into the history of one of the greatest ever institutions – the great British public park. Many have enjoyed them at some time in our lives but what do we really know about them? their origins? did they really start in the Victorian period, or do they go even further back? This talk illustrates their origins, talks about the need for parks, the Victorian heyday, what makes a great park, with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains and floral displays, to their great decline in the sixties and seventies. However, the subsequent revival has led to a major shift in interest in our parks and once again we are much in love with them. This is also a highly illustrative talk accompanied by slides with examples of parks from across the UK and their designs and architecture.
Lecturer Paul Rabbitts MLA MPMA FRHistS FRSA FLI is a graduate of Sheffield City Polytechnic with a degree in Geography, followed by a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh University. He has worked extensively across the UK, from Jersey, to Carlisle City Council, Middlesbrough Council, Halcrow Group, with 11 years as Head of Parks, Heritage and Culture at Watford Borough Council. Paul moved in Jan 2022 to take up a post as the Head of Parks and Open Spaces at the new City of Southend-on-Sea. He is a published author of over 28 books on the subject of parks, local history as well as icons such as Decimus Burton, Grinling Gibbons and Sir Christopher Wren. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Historical Society and The Landscape Institute, he lectures frequently on the subject of public parks and the historic icon of parks – the bandstand.
