Boston Flora

Tag: Paul Rabbitts

  • Wednesday, May 15, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks: Cassiobury, The Ancient Seat of the Earls of Essex, Online

    The People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

    Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbitts on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

    Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

    On May 15, we discuss Cassiobury Park. One of the remnants of the great lost estates, Cassiobury Park is now the largest park in Hertfordshire, and the principal park of Watford, covering an area twice the size of Hyde Park. But this is no ordinary park. In 1661, Arthur, the 2nd Baron Capel, was made the Earl of Essex and, by 1668/69, he had moved to Cassiobury. By 1707, Cassiobury was a significant estate, and Charles Bridgeman was employed here in the 1720s. In 1800, the 5th Earl of Essex employed James Wyatt to rebuild the house along with Humphry Repton. The landscape was captured by Turner in many paintings.

    By the beginning of the twentieth century, large areas of the park had been sold off to the council for public parkland. By 1921, the lease was surrendered and, in 1927, Cassiobury House was demolished. Much of the remaining land was bought by the council becoming further parkland for the expanding town. This talk tells the significant story of a remarkable estate, family and park.

  • Wednesday, May 8, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks: Parkitecture, The Essence of What Makes a Great Park

    The People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

    Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbitts on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

    Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

    So what makes a great park? what are the ingredients of these great institutions? what is it that we enjoy so much when we visit them? The legacy of our great Victorian parks includes the fantastic features within them – drinking fountains, bandstands, park lodges, palm houses, boating lakes, cafes, bridges, mansions, museums, glorious gates, statues, monuments and sculpture. Paul Rabbitts calls this ‘Parkitecture’. The architecture of the park. And what of the challenges facing those who have to manage these historic spaces and features when they no longer become relevant. Join me on a journey through some of Great Britain’s finest public parks and enjoy the feast of features within them – parkitecture!

  • Wednesday, May 1, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks: Great Designers, Online

    The People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

    Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbitts on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

    Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

    Capability Brown, Humphry Repton, William Kent, great landscape gardeners we love and admire. They have designed some of the most impressive landscapes we can still enjoy to this day. Yet most of us will use our local park at some stage. There are 27,000 of them across the UK, and we take them for granted. They are designed landscapes and have emanated from the hands of such people as Joseph Paxton, JC Loudon, John Nash. Yet what about the great municipal designers, nurserymen, parks superintendents, landscape architects such as Sexby, Pettigrew, Sandys-Winsch, Vertegans, Mawson, Marnock, Milner, Kemp and Gibson – so many important parks delivered at their hands – from Birkenhead Park to Saltwell Park in Gateshead, Eaton Park in Norwich to West Park in Wolverhampton – these were great parks delivered to us by great designers.

  • Wednesday, April 24, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks: London’s Royal Parks

    The People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

    Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbits on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

    Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

    Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    Week two takes place April 24. London’s royal parks are among its most beautiful and beloved spaces: just as much as the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace or St Pancras Station, the mere mention of Hyde or Regent’s Park is enough to evoke the capital in all its glory for residents and tourists alike. They have a grand history – some were royally owned as far back as the Norman conquest, others were acquired by Henry VIII during the Reformation – and since being opened to the public during the eighteenth century, they have hosted some of London’s great events, including the Great Exhibition and innumerable jubilees and celebrations. This talk tells the story of all eight of the parks from the point when they were acquired by the monarchy until the present day, including the major historic moments and events with which they are associated.

  • Wednesday, April 17, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – People’s Parks – A Concise History, Online

    People’s Parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouraging green spaces and recreation, the public park came to symbolize one of the greatest contributions of the era.

    Opened in increasing numbers in the industrious nineteenth century, by the end of the twentieth century many of our parks had become sadly neglected. But today they remain outdoor places for everyone to enjoy, acting as children’s play areas, sports grounds and even concert venues and have grown in popularity since the global pandemic. But what do we really know about them? The Gardens Trust is sponsoring a series of six weekly online lectures with Paul Rabbits on Wednesdays from April 17 – May 22.

    Buy a ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peoples-parks-tickets-852833737667

    Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.

    The first lecture on April 17 really is a fascinating insight into the history of one of our greatest ever institutions – the Great British Public Park – People’s Parks. We have perhaps all 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 back even further? This talk illustrates their origins, the need for parks, their 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. This is a particularly popular talk and always goes down well as we can nearly always recount our own experiences with our own local park.This first session will follow the blossoming of the amazing 2,000-year-old story of why we have gardens at all. This is a fascinating tale of how they grew in the Roman world to become so much more than a productive space by a house. As the Empire expanded and the ordinary people aspired to have show-off homes, the gardens rapidly became a work of art in themselves. Now, for the first time in history, they became the personal creative spaces we know and love today. You’ll be astonished at how much the Romans have shaped our modern gardens today: from practical suppliers of food to homely open spaces and grand vistas and landscapes. They all have fascinating ancient roots that reveal how gardens came to be our own social, spiritual and physical spaces. Greenery, space, status, pleasure and fun, places of togetherness and of meditative solitude … all these aspects have truly ancient roots.

  • Thursday, June 2, 5:00 am – The Nineteenth Century Garden: Great British Parks, Online

    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.