NEIGHBOURHOOD PARKS 



may l)e to exert a steadying influence adverse to the growing tendencj' 

 to exceed income in the scale of daily living. 



PARKS IX THE FINEST NEIGHBOURHOODS 



It is in the neighbourhood park of the third type, those in the resi- 

 dential districts of the " privileged " classes, that the greatest liberty 

 of design may be taken, — although by this is not meant the greatest 

 liberty of expenditure. The plan may be formal or informal. Here it 

 will be found practicable to permit the plan to take on a more natural- 

 istic character, although actual imitation of rural scenery should not 

 be attempted. There should be expressed a certain amount of govern- 

 ment in naturalistic design, an effect of balance and symmetry, and a 

 striving for pictorial composition that will give a sort of formality to 

 the most informal grouping of landscape elements. Often the areas 

 to be developed as parks will already possess attractive featm-es of 

 contour or tree growth, and any existing beauty of such nature should 

 be conserved and allowed to colour the park scene created. 



These parks may be either wholly screened so as to render the in- 

 terior portion very private, or they may be allowed to take exactly the 

 reverse character in extreme openness, suggesting centralisation of 

 the house lawns. Originally, in many instances, parks of this character 

 w^re actually owned by residents of the neighbourhood and were fenced 

 and kept locked up. Practically all of the London residential parks 

 are closed except to the neighbourhood residents who have keys to 

 admit them, and the interior portions are developed as private grounds 

 with informal treatment of winding walks, summer houses, and border 

 plantings. Portman, Bedford, Grosvenor, Berkeley, and Red Lion 

 Squares are examples of such London parks, and we have our own 

 Grammercy Park in New York City of the same private character. 

 Records show that Lafayette Park in Washington originally was en- 

 closed with a six-foot iron fence in a similar way, and not until 1880 



110 



