Moorfields: The Story of London's First Public Park
David Marsh
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional/academic/Hobby/Rotary/sometimes charity
- Fee:
- Paid: 100 online , more for travelling depending on distance etc
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 31st January 2023
- Tagged:
- London History | Parks | Gardens | Horticulture
Many Londoners will know Finsbury Square and Finsbury Circus: small open spaces , set amidst the office blocks on the northern edge of the City, near Moorgate and Liverpool Street stations. But how many will realise that they are the last remnants of London’s first public park laid out between 1606 and 1616
This talk tells the story of how the boggy moor, once the mediaeval home of ice skating and football, was drained, planted with trees and turned into walks for all Londoners. Of course like many well-intentioned projects it didn’t quite work out quite the way it was intended. It quickly gained a name for crime, prostitution, illegal building, street theatre, fly-tipping and even the occasional riot! Keepers had to be appointed to maintain order. After the Great Fire of 1666 it became a campsite for thousands of Londoners who set up tents and shops amongst the trees. The last ones did not leave for 7 years afterwards.
A new asylum for “lunatics” was build on a part of it - the famous Bedlam - and it became a big tourist attraction. The Corporation maintained the walks, replanting trees and keeping the grass cut, the rails and fencing in good order and the gravel paths well-rolled but continual vandalism took its toll. By the 18th century the city fathers decided to sell off large chunks of the park for housing development, and although there was a lot of opposition - including some early environmental campaigners - they finally succeeded. Finsbury Square was built in 1777-91 and Finsbury Circus between 1815-17.
Views: 472 | Enquiries: 0About David Marsh
I've been lecturing "live" and on-line about every aspect of the history of gardens, landscapes, as well as plant hunting /plants/botany for more than 25 years to gardens clubs, U3A groups, and to museums like the V&A & across higher education. I discovered the subject because after a career as a head teacher I took very early retirement and went back into education full time on my own account. I did a four year diploma course in Garden History which led on to an MA in Historical Research and then a PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London.
I was a trustee of The Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes and chaired their education committee from 2016 until 2023. I also write a weekly blog for them which you can find at thegardenstrust.blog
I've run courses on the history of gardens [and many other things] at Birkbeck and City Lit. I'm currently an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and run a Masters Course in Garden History as well as offering supervision to PhD students.
If all that sounds posh - rest assured I'm not!
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by David Marsh
- The Little Men in Red Hats
- Castles for Cows & Palaces for Poultry
- What Made Your Garden Grow?
- The Joys [and Problems!] of Making a Garden in France
- The History of the London Square
- Plants on Paper: A Potted History of Botanical Art
- The Opposite of Chelsea: The Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire
- The National Botanic Gardens of Burma
- Humphry Repton: Britain’s First Landscape Gardener
- Tools of the Trade
- Puzzle Pictures
- The Elephant in the Garden
- The History of the Cottage Garden
- The Tradescants
- The palaces of Tudor London and their gardens...and their beasts!
- The Great Geranium Robbery
- An Introduction to Tudor and Stuart Gardens
- The Loudons
- The Picturesque
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