MUNICIPAL PARKS 
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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 all 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 
