Public parks were first developed in England in the nineteenth century as a response to the negative effects of increasing industrialization and urbanization. Reformers believed that parks could be used to correct some to the deficiencies of the new type of city they saw evolving around them. Eventually North Americans became aware of the parks movement and adapted it for their cities. The public park came to be viewed as an integral part of the expanding city.
The development of public parks in Hamilton, Ontario occurred within the same time frame as elsewhere but the history of that development is peculiar to Hamilton. Hamiltonians were aware of the development of parks in England, in the United States and in other Canadian cities and were influenced by the pattern of events occurring elsewhere. However, the purpose of the public park was not that articulated by urban reformers. Reform rhetoric is not found in the records of the Parks and Cemeteries cormmittee of the Hamilton city council or in the later records of the Hamilton board of Park Management. Public parks in Hamilton were developed as civic amenities. Hamilton officials used public parks to draw new industry and the settlement that accompanied it to the city. Park development was a booster activity, if a conflict developed over the allocation of land in the city, parks were sacrificed to industry.
The public park, "an area of land laid out primarily for public use amidst essentially urban surroundings" [1], was first developed in England during the nineteenth century. Such a park is differentiated from the public land of the village common or the town square and from the park reserves which often adjoined the estates of the well-to-do by its purpose. According to an English parliament Select Committee in 1833.
| many inclosures of open spaces in the vicinity of towns have taken place, and little or no provision has been made for public walks or open spaces fitted to afford means of exercise or amusement to the middle or humbler classes ...Any provision of public walks or open spaces would much conduce to the comfort, health and content of the classes in question.[2] |
The nineteenth century in England was one of increasing industrialization and urbanization. Cities were becoming more and more congested and undeveloped land, particularly in the - cities' core areas, was becoming rarer. Open spaces which had brightened the city with their greenery and which had been utilized as recreational spaces were rapidly disappearing. They were being replaced by factories whose black soot coated the cities. Public parks were proposed to counteract the harmful effects of industrialization and urbanization.
The Romantic philosophy which then prevailed in art and literature intensified concern about an increasingly urban society.[3] Romanticism was characterized by a highly emotional attachment to the pastoral rural world. It was believed that images of natural beauty were impressed on the mind and that much later when the pressures of the man-made world threatened to overwhelm an individual he could recollect those natural images and his spirit would be restored. Increasingly great masses of men living in cities were being denied access to the natural world. It was widely believed that such a denial could only have disastrous results.
The public park movement was first promoted by the upper classes. Public parks would be natural oases in the midst of the city and would, therefore, offset the urban environment. The workingman could stroll through a park after work and the tensions of the day would be erased. Those members of the aristocracy who promoted public parks believed that if the workingman was kept untroubled and happy a measure of social stability would have been achieved. Parks were thus used by one class as a means of controlling another.[4]
Parks were first provided as a philanthropic gesture by members of the aristocracy. In London the Royal Reserves were opened to the public. Gradually the public parks movement gained support from other sectors of society. Public health workers outlined the benefits of exercise, fresh air and sunshine for the whole population. The middles classes welcomed parks because they enhanced property values in the areas around them. [5]
Accompanying this broader based support was the belief that parks should be provided and managed by the city government. Accepting the report of the 1855 Select Committee on Public Walks the English parliament passed various Acts regarding the provision of public parks throughout the 1840's until finally in 1859 a comprehensive Recreation Grounds Act was passed.