MUNICIPAL PARKS 123 



much variety in these parks, both north and south, and 

 the chief difference lies in their origin. When a sub- 

 urban manor-house, standing in its own grounds, with 

 well-timbered park and a garden of some design, has 

 been acquired, a much finer effect is produced than when 

 fields or market-gardens have been bought up and made 

 into a park. 



Finsbury Park, for instance, was merely fields, while 

 Waterlow has always been part of a private demesne. 

 It is the same on the south of the river. Brockwell is an 

 old park and garden. Battersea was entirely made. Each 

 park has features which give it an individual character, 

 while there is and must be a certain repetition in describ- 

 ing every one separately. 



Many details are of necessity more or less the same in 

 each. The London County Council is responsible for 

 the greater number, and in every case they have thought 

 certain things essential. For instance, the band-stand ; no 

 park, large or small, is considered complete without one. 

 It is hardly necessary to mention each individually, though 

 some are of the ordinary patterns, others more "rustic" 

 in construction (as in Brockwell Park), with branching 

 oak supports and thatched or tiled roofs. Every park, 

 except Waterlow, which is too hilly, furnishes ample area 

 for games. Cricket pitches by the dozen, and space for 

 numerous goal-posts is provided for, in each and ail of 

 the larger parks. Gymnasiums, too, are included in the 

 requirements of a fully-equipped park. Swings for the 

 smaller children, bars, ropes, and higher swings for older 

 boys and girls, are supplied. Bathing pools of greater or 

 less dimensions are often added, the one in Victoria 

 Park being especially large and crowded. Then the larger 

 parks have green-houses, and a succession of plants are on 



