Birkenhead Park

Birkenhead Park is a public park in the centre of Birkenhead, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847. It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civic park in the world. Paxton had earlier designed Princes Park, Liverpool, a private development - wikipedia

In 1841 an Improvement Commission (Improvement commissioners) – part of Birkenhead's local government – proposed the idea of a municipal park. A Private Act of Parliament (Local and Personal Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom) allowed it to use public money to buy 226 of marshy grazing land on the western edge of Birkenhead.

Plots of land on the edge of the proposed park were then sold off in order to finance its construction. Although some large houses and private villas were initially built by local merchants and wealthier business people, the Long Depression in the latter 19th century would mean that many plots remained undeveloped well into early 20th century.

The Improvement Commission chose Paxton to design the park and Edward Kemp as the works supervisor because both had previously worked on redesigning the gardens at Chatsworth House. The park, which took five years to build, was designed to be natural and informal rather than a structured neatly arranged urban garden. Several miles of drainage pipes were lain to remove the water from the marshy land. The park also led to the diversion of Old Bidston Road and the loss of a direct route between Claughton (Claughton, Merseyside) and Woodside (Woodside, Merseyside). During construction, hundreds of tonnes of stone and earth was moved to create well-drained terraces, hills, rockeries and lakes. Paxton planted numerous trees and shrubs at various places so visitors would enjoy the surprise of unexpected views or hidden features as they wandered through the park. Buildings included the Swiss Bridge, Boathouse, Norman Lodges, Gothic Lodge, Castellated Lodge and Italian Lodge. The Grand Entrance (Grand Entrance to Birkenhead Park), which is one of several into the park, was built to look like a classical triumphal arch. As many as 10,000 people attended the official opening in 1847.

In 1917 the National Eisteddfod of Wales ("The Eisteddfod of the Black Chair (Hedd Wyn)"), which was attended by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, was held within the park. The park had already paid host to the event in 1878 and 1879.

In 1850, American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted arrived by ship in Liverpool. During his stay in Northwest England, he paid a visit to Birkenhead Park along with several other public gardens. He noted Birkenhead was "a model town" which was built "all in accordance with the advanced science, taste, and enterprising spirit that are supposed to distinguish the nineteenth century".

In 1858, he and Calvert Vaux won the competition to design a new park, Central Park, for the rapidly growing city of New York (New York City).

Birkenhead Park was used as a template for the creation of Sefton Park, which opened in Liverpool in 1872.