Csepely-Knorr Luca: Barren Places to Public Spaces. A History of Publick Park Design in Budapest 1867-1914 (Budapest, 2016)
Public Parks and Public Park design in the Second Half of the 19th Century
A Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s Central Park, New York on an 187S map / Wikimedia Commons in Manchester in 1845.120 The Queens, Phillips and Peel parks were also pivotal, as the designer was chosen through a design competition. These were financed by public subscription, which shows the citizens’ growing demand for urban green spaces. The sign at the entrance of Phillips Park stating that “This park was purchased by the people, was made for the people and is given to the people for their protection" shows both the pride in the creation and the shared responsibility for the new green space.121 According to the aims of the competition, Major’s goal was to “to provide the greatest variety of rational recreations for the greatest possible number''.'11 Nevertheless, the role public parks play in the moral education of visitors was also important in Britain. This aspect was already revealed in the first report by the Select Committee of Public Walks in 1833. As the Committee stressed, public parks can help society for many reasons: as the ‘lungs’ of the city they create a healthier environment, and the recreational and sporting opportunities offer a healthier alternative instead of the alehouses. As with the German theorists, the report highlighted the way public parks could help to make various social classes meet, and through this how they could ease social tensions. They also highlighted the uplifting effect of nature. As the committee concluded: “[public parks] improve people’s physical health, make them happier and better citizens and encourage them to be virtuous”.123 The theories of Loudon, Paxton and Major enriched the educational role of parks by adding botany and natural history to the aesthetic and moral functions defined by German theorists. They also introduced the importance of specialised sports and games facilities. Both the reconstruction of Paris and the first public park in New York used the British examples as precedents. This is important for the current study because the most influential theorist for Hungarian public parks, Gustav Meyer, used these examples in his book as models to follow. Frederick Law Olmsted,124 who is often referred to as the founder of landscape architecture in the United States of America, first visited Europe in 1850 and also explored the Birkenhead Park, which shaped his ideas about urban green spaces. This was the first time Olmsted saw a park which was freely accessible and open to the public. This visit inspired his first writing on public parks.125 The most important thing was the new idea behind this space, as “for the Americans ‘Park’ means something of the aristocratic, old world decadence”.'16 He admired the democratic nature of Birkenhead because, as he phrased: "The poorest British peasant is as free to enjoy it in all its parts as the British Queen. More than that, the Baker of Birkenhead had the pride of an Owner in it."'27 This experience articulated his design principles and his understanding of public parks. The main principle in the designs by Olmsted and his partner, the British Calvert Vaux,128 was to create recreational opportunities for all classes. Along with its Flower beds in Phillips Park in Manchester / MMU Library Following pages: Georges Eugène Haussmann's plan for the regulation of Paris, after 1852 J-Ch. Adolphe Alphand, Les Promenades de Paris, Paris, 1867-1873 / BME-OMIKK 33
