4 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



Hospital, and of other old-world haunts of peace. The 

 rarest thing in London are the private gardens, yet they 

 too go to make up the aggregate lungs of the city. 

 Out of a total of upwards of 75,000 acres there are 

 in round numbers some 6000 acres of parks, com- 

 mons, squares, and open spaces in London : of these 

 a little over 4000 acres are in the hands of the London 

 County Council. Besides this it administers nearly 

 900 acres outside the county. The City of London 

 owns large forest tracts, commons, and parks beyond 

 the limit of the County of London — Epping, Burnham 

 Beeches, Highgate Wood, and parks in West Ham, 

 Kilburn, &c. — altogether nearly 6500 acres. 



London is such a wide word, it is difficult to set a 

 limit, and to decide what open spaces actually belong 

 to London. As the town stretches away into the 

 country, it is impossible to see the boundaries of London. 

 The line must be drawn near where the chimney-pots 

 become incessant, and the stems of the trees become 

 black. But the degree of blackness, dirt, and density 

 is impossible to decide ; so a prosaic, matter-of-fact, but 

 necessary rule has been adhered to in the following pages, 

 of keeping as strictly as possible to the actual defined 

 limits of the County of London. Therefore all the parks 

 owned by the City Corporation or London County 

 Council outside this limit have not been dealt with, and 

 such places as Chiswick, Kew, Richmond, or Gunners- 

 bury have been omitted. 



To get to some of these places involves a consider- 

 able journey. Many of the outlying parks have to be 

 reached by train, or by a very long drive, or tram ride. 

 From Hyde Park Corner, for instance, to Bostall Wood 

 or Avery Hill is a long expedition. To the fortunate 



