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Victorian Gardens

• The nineteenth century
• Smoke
• Suburbia
• The Villa Garden
• Squalor and disease
• Action! Fresh Air for the Working Classes!
• The First Public Park?
• Family outings
• New Inventions for the garden
• Case studies

So far in our story, beautiful parks and gardens have been a luxury for people with plenty of land and money. But during the nineteenth century things changed. For the very first time, public parks became a popular hobby for ordinary people. Why did this happen?

The nineteenth century tested

The nineteenth century was a time of inventions, discoveries, new technology and rapid change that affected all aspects of life. By the mid 1840's, Queen Victoria had been on the throne for a decade, reigning over an expanding British Empire, and Britain was the industrial power-house of the world. This brought great wealth and prosperity for some, but hardship for others.

Smoke

Britain was no longer a mainly agricultural, rural society. Agricultural labourers flocked from the countryside to the ever-growing towns and cities, looking for jobs in the new factories, and homes nearby. There was plenty of work, but it was hard, dirty and often dangerous. Writers such as Charles Dickens describe the severe hardships they suffered, although the Mayor of Middlesborough proclaimed that they were 'proud of their smoke'!

Suburbia

The new 'middle class' of wealthy industrialists, merchants and bankers spent their money on improving their lives. They read about the the latest ideas and fashions and went to exhibitions to find out about the newest inventions. They moved away from the smoke to the edges of the cities into new houses, or 'villas', with big gardens, miniature versions of the great country houses. These pleasant, green areas became known as 'suburbia'

The Villa Garden

Now that the Middle Classes had their new gardens, what would they look like? Suburban gardens were too small for the 'Landscape' style that was still popular on large estates. Instead people got ideas from new magazines like 'Gardeners Weekly', or by reading what the Victorian garden-writer John Claudius Loudon suggested.

Terraces or raised walkways and flower beds became popular once more through the work of Humphry Repton. Decorations like urns and statues were in fashion again, but they could overwhelm a small garden and there was much debate about what counted as 'good taste'.

Squalor and disease

However, the working classes couldn't afford to move away from the factories. They lived in squalid housing, dark, overcrowded and unsanitary, breathing smoky air and drinking polluted water. There were many outbreaks of cholera and typhus.

Action! Fresh Air for the Working Classes!

Concern grew about the health, living conditions and morals of the working classes. Eventually action was taken. Well-designed new townsindustrial villages like New LanarkSalt Aire, Port Sunlight and Bournville were built fror the factory workers. The government brought in new laws to improve the water supply and build proper sewers. Industrialists and local councils recognised that people in the crowded cities needed open spaces where they could take healthy exercise and breathe clean air. The Commons Preservation Society was founded in 1865. Public parks were another answer.

The First Public Park?

The first public park was probably Philips Park, Manchester, (although Birkenhead Park also claims to be the first). It was paid for by public subscription. It provided the sort of things we associate with parks: flower beds, trees, statues and lawns. But it also provided clean drinking water, as few local people had indoor plumbing. This was a place for social gathering, for walks or promenades as well as games and sport: it had a swimming pool, an archery range and bowling greens, but no football pitches - they came later.

More about public parks

Family outings

Sundays and bank holidays were the days for family outings. Visits to the park were very popular, and this habit was encouraged. It was a way of supporting Victorian family values, as well as keeping the father sober and refreshed for work the next day. If the workers were healthy, they would also be more productive at work, so everyone gained.

New Inventions for the Garden

Advances in Victorian technology led to new ways of gardening. The development of inexpensive glass meant that glasshouses and conservatories could be built. This allowed people to grow exotic fruits and plants such as peaches, pineapples, orchids and palms and the thousands of bedding plants that were used each year.

Cast iron provided the structural strength for the new buildings where newly introduced plants from around the world could be grown safely.

Thanks to Nathaniel Ward, by the 1830s the Wardian case was used to transport plants in sealed glass cases, like tiny portable greenhouses.

The one invention that changed the garden more than anything else was the lawnmower, invented by Edwin Budding in 1851. Within two years, it was being manufactured by Ransoms. Suddenly, the lawn was one of the main features of the garden, and ever since then gardeners have tried to achieve the perfect outdoor green carpet!

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Garden Case Studies

Belsay Garden

Birkenhead Park  Birkenhead Park Part 2

Brodsworth Garden