27th January, 2019. History of Public Parks, 19.

To continue blog 18’s theme of pathways/carriageways and benches. The rapid rise in car ownership after the Great War and the continuing popularity of visits to public parks resulted in the carriageways of parks becoming increasingly swamped by parked cars or stationary cars with the passengers just taking-in the view and people watching. This problem post Second World War resulted in some loss of green space hard-surfaced for parking but often a generous allocation of hard-surfacing by Victorian park creators meant this was deemed not necessary. This aspect of park development was connected with the fact that originally municipal parks usually had substantial perimeter fences and gates, the latter shut and opened at agreed times by the park keepers. However, declining budgets often resulted in park gates being just left open, while during the World Wars original wrought iron fencing often was sacrificed to war-needs and then never replaced (s.l.b.).

Today Hull’s main parks – Pearson, West, East and Pickering all have open access to vehicles and are subject to only very ‘light’ policing, given this, and given some people’s perception of the town, the absence of serious anti-social behaviour would seem to imply a residual respect for the municipal park environment.

To be able to sit and soak-up the ambiance of municipal parks across all seasons is essential and so the park bench has always been prime ‘park furniture’. Whether made of metal or wood all benches will deteriorate over time so their provision or replacement can involve a significant capital outlay. A survey ‘on line’ of sturdy benches reveals that there can be little change out of £1000 for a single one, ad then they have to be installed (s.p.b.). In creating the Chad Varah Memorial Garden recently in Baysgarth Park, Barton on Humber the Friends of B.P. had installed solid plastic benches made from recycled plastic, and I have seen these elsewhere.

In assessing a municipal space one criteria could well be ‘are there enough/any benches’.