A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.
This survey, and fascinating history, of the public green spaces of London was published in 1898. Its author, John J. Sexby, the Chief Officer of Parks of the London County Council, is described as a lieutenant-colonel and a professional associate of the Surveyors' Institution, from which it can be deduced that he probably worked as a surveyor in the army. His skills as a horticulturalist and garden designer cannot be doubted, and he left his mark on many of the municipal parks and gardens about which he writes with such enthusiasm. Sexby focuses on the municipal parks (those maintained by local authorities) rather than the nationally managed parks in central London. He describes large open spaces such as Hampstead Heath as well as small, disused churchyards like that of St Dunstan's in Stepney, providing details of their former owners and use as well as their present condition.
Introduction
1. Battersea Park
2. Blackheath
3. Bostal Heath
4. Brockwell Park
5. Clapham Common
6. Hilly Fields
7. Kennington Park
8. Ladywell recreation-ground
9. Myatt's Fields
10. Southwark Park
11. Tooting Graveney Common
12. Wandsworth Common
13. Bethnal Green Gardens
14. The Embankment Gardens
15. The Embankment Gardens (cont.)
16. Finsbury Park
17. Hackney Commons
18. Hackney Commons (cont.)
19. Hampstead Heath
20. Hampstead Heath (cont.)
21. Parliament Hill
22. Highbury Fields
23. Island Gardens, Poplar
24. Leicester Square
25. Lincoln's Inn Fields
26. Ravenscourt Park
27. Spa Green
28. Victoria Park
29. Waterlow Park
30. Western Commons
31. Wapping recreation-ground
Appendix
Index