"The Boathouse", alongside the park's lake.

Birkenhead Park is a public park in the centre of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. A park is a protected area of Land and Water, usually in its natural or semi-natural (landscaped state and set aside for some purpose often to do with human Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. Wirral or the Wirral (ˈwɪrəl is a Peninsula in the north west of England. Merseyside is a Metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1365900 England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847. Sir Joseph Paxton ( 3 August 1803 &ndash 8 June 1865) was an English Gardener and Architect, best known Events 456 - St Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common It is commonly regarded as the first civic public park in Britain. ^[1] Paxton had earlier designed Princes Park, Liverpool, a private development. Princes Park in Toxteth, Liverpool, England, is a 45 Hectare municipal Park, 2 miles south east of Liverpool city centre

History

It is widely accepted that, after visiting the park in 1850, American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted incorporated many of the features he observed into his design for New York's Central Park. Frederick Law Olmsted ( April 25, 1822 &ndash August 28, 1903) was an American landscape designer and father of American New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Central Park is a large public Urban park in New York City, with about twenty-five million visitors annually He wrote about the strong influence of Birkenhead Park in his book Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, and commented:

"five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with this People’s Garden".

Olmsted also commented on the "perfection" of the gardening:

"I cannot undertake to describe the effect of so much taste and skill as had evidently been employed; I will only tell you, that we passed by winding paths, over acres and acres, with a constant varying surface, where on all sides were growing every variety of shrubs and flowers, with more than natural grace, all set in borders of greenest, closest turf, and all kept with consummate neatness".

Olmsted described Birkenhead as "a model town” which was built "all in accordance with the advanced science, taste, and enterprising spirit that are supposed to distinguish the nineteenth century".

Other parks influenced by Birkenhead Park include Sefton Park in Liverpool. Sefton Park is public Park in the Sefton Park district of south Liverpool, England.

Modern times

The park was designated a conservation area in 1977 and declared a Grade I listed landscape by English Heritage in 1995. A conservation area is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded In England, the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England safeguards the features and qualities of key landscapes for the future English Heritage is a Non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government ( Department for Culture Media and Sport) with a broad remit of ^[2]

The Grand Entrance is the main entrance to Birkenhead Park. Within the Grand Entrance are the North and South Lodges, two Grade I listed buildings. A listed building in the United Kingdom is a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural historical or cultural significance The Grand Entrance and the lodges have been renovated and now house Express Comedy^[3] and Active Drama. The lodges are also the home of the Wirral Academy of Arts.

Birkenhead Park has recently been the subject of an £11. 5 million renovation, funded jointly by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Wirral Waterfront SRB, Wirral Council, and the European Union via the Objective One programme. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc Wirral Waterfront SRB (Single Regeneration Budget is a large urban regeneration initiative in Wirral, England. Wirral or The Wirral (ˈwɪrəl is a Metropolitan borough in Merseyside, North West England, which occupies the northern The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in The Regional policy of the European Union (EU is a policy with the stated aim of improving the Economic Well-being of certain regions All of the paths have been improved, trees and shrubs have been planted, the lakes have been emptied, cleaned and reshaped and most of the original features have been restored to their former Victorian glory. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities ^[4] Additionally, a modern glass-fronted building houses a coffee-house style café, Cappuchino's. Unusually for a park of this nature, it is possible for private motorists to drive around the outer circular road, to park freely anywhere along it, and to drive directly to the café.

References

Notes

Sources

• Olmsted, Frederick Law. Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England (reprinted University of Michigan Press, 1967)