Pioneering the park of the future

Paul Lincoln Editor

The gates to Birkenhead Park have been open for more than 150 years. In its application to become a World Heritage site, the government has called it, ‘a blueprint for municipal planning that has influenced town and city parks across the world’. However, as Karen Fitzsimon asks in her feature on Birkenhead, ‘Do large parks like these tie us to a public park concept that is no longer relevant to current needs?’

Responses to this provocation can be found throughout this issue: in Rajasthan, where improvements at Udaan Park have recently transformed an underused, lakeside park into a safe public space and in three parks in Dubai, all of which demonstrate approaches to irrigation and planting that are of immense relevance to the UK.

Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens has defied commercial development and brought a much-contested site back to life. In Tottenham, extensive community consultation is leading to the creation of a brand-new park for a fast-growing part of the capital.

Glasgow City Council is putting women at the heart of planning. The council has made Glasgow the UK’s first feminist city, noting that ‘in order to create public spaces that are safe and inclusive for women, ...it is fundamental that women are central to all aspects of planning, public realm design, policy development and budgets’.

The important work in Glasgow is reinforced by research at Leeds University, which has led to new guidelines designed to make parks and green spaces safer for women and girls across the UK.

Although Covid briefly put parks on the national map, the focus on the health benefits of green space is no longer a high-profile issue. However, the relationship between park management and design, backed up by funding which recognises their significance, is crucial in creating parks that are fit for the future.

At the heart of every park, from Birkenhead to Udaan, is the relationship between design and management. This edition examines these through the lens of community engagement, climate emergency and inclusivity.

What we are now witnessing is the start of a fascinating process. For inclusion on the World Heritage List, a site like Birkenhead Park must be of ‘outstanding universal value’. The debate on how we interpret this, and nurture a dynamic public park concept that offers value to both current and future needs, is just beginning.