London Parks and Gardens
Course Information
| Course Code: | CE1609 |
| Start date(s): | Monday 26 April 2010 |
| Class Time: | 6.30pm – 8.30pm |
| Number of Classes: | 6 weekly classes and 4 field trips and visits |
| Course Fee: | £200.00 |
Overview
Students of this course will look at the past and the present-day design and purposes of London’s public open spaces. We examine the creation and uses of royal, botanic and metropolitan parks and gardens – for example, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Hampton Court Palace Privy Garden and Kew Gardens – and of smaller spaces, such as garden squares.
We also discuss recent initiatives in the city, both re-landscaping and the development of new sites. Students will gain an understanding of the landscape design and ecology of London’s open spaces; of the historic and contemporary cultural ideas that underpin their planning; and of their importance in the lives of Londoners past, present and future. This is a stand-alone course but it will be of particular interest to existing students of the London Heritage programme, such as those studying tour guiding, who wish to extend their expertise. Four sessions take place at parks and gardens.
Eligibility
What will I learn?
- to recognise the diversity, origins and planning of London’s parks and gardens
- to describe the motivations for the creation of a variety of London’s open public spaces
- to review the significance of London’s open public spaces in the lives of Londoners and visitors to the city in the past, present and future
- to prepare a case study of a specific outside area of London
Recommended Reading
Billington, J. (2003) London’s Parks and Gardens (London: Frances Lincoln)
Desmond, R. (1998) Kew: The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens (London: The Harvill Press)
Pierce, P. (1993) Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (London: Royal Parks)
Royal Parks Foundation (2006) London’s Royal Parks (London: Think Publishing Ltd)
Wolton, D. & McDowall, D. (2007) Hampstead Heath (London: Frances Lincoln)
Young, G. (1998) Walking London’s Parks and Gardens (London: New Holland)
http://www.londonlandscape.gre.ac.uk/
Tutor Information
Emma Townshend studied at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. She has taught garden history in adult education for more than ten years, both in London and in Oxford for the University’s department of continuing education. She writes a weekly gardening column in the Independent on Sunday and her new book Darwin's Dogs: How Darwin's Pets Helped Form a World-Changing Theory of Evolution is published by Frances Lincoln in October 2009 to tie in with the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species.
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