We've found 2594 parks

Cecil Sharp was a key figure in reviving modern English folk music, joining the Committee of the Folk Song Society in 1904. In 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society; the two societies later amalgamated. Sharp died in 1924, bequeathing his library to the Society, which raised funds to buy a plot of land on which to build its national headquarters and memorial to him. Cecil Sharp House opened in June 1930 and according to original plans its triangular garden was intended as an open air theatre, although there is no evidence that it was used as such. Two curving flights of stairs lead from the building onto lawn, with a semi-circular seating area set into the wall at the apex of the triangle. The garden today contains shrubs, flowers and trees, some planted in memory of people connected to the Society.

Formerly part of Lime Wood, the use of this small level site as a cemetery pre-dates the building of the Friary here. Established in Erith by 1867, the Capuchin Franciscan Friars acquired the land at Northumberland Heath and the Friary was built in 1902/3, with its Hall added by 1928 and Our Lady of the Angels Church in 1963. The cemetery is still in use. Enclosed within iron railings it is laid to grass that is occasionally mown and contains small to medium sized monuments. There are trees around the edges except for the east, which fronts onto Bexley Road.

Centenary Park is on sloping land, and was added to the area's public open space in 1934 when Middlesex County Council acquired the land. The park has some formal layout with a tree set within a circular lawn on the axis with the main entrance and another circular bed planted with heather and conifers. A perimeter path with a line of London plane trees runs along Culver Grove and a red brick lodge is located at one end of Culver Avenue. Part of the park is laid out as a putting green, enclosed by a chain link fence.

The Abbey Playing Fields were first proposed in Barking Town UDC's 1943 Report on Post War Redevelopment to provide a 'worthy setting' for Barking Abbey and St Margaret's Church, to be achieved by acquiring and demolishing properties on the site. The plan proposed by Professor G. Peter Youngman was eventually approved in 1965 and the completed scheme based on his design included various areas created as 'a composite whole by the continuity of footpaths, the repetition of similar trees and structural elements and by a sequence of views, enclosed spaces and open spaces.' Central Area Open Space (North & South) was substantially complete by December 1974. In 2009 plans for improving the wider site as Abbey Green commenced, with design proposals by Lynch Architects in partnership with Kinnear Landscape due to commence in 2010.

Central Park was laid out on a site purchased by Dagenham Borough Council in 1928, and opened in 1932; facilities included a putting green, miniature golf course, pavilion and tennis grounds. The Civic Centre opened in October 1937 with its Council Chamber overlooking the park, which since 2017 has been converted to a university run by the Coventry University Group.

Extensive plans for the park, including formal planting near the Civic Centre, were disrupted by WWII and never completed. Facilities added over the years include the Old People's Garden, a children's playground (1952), and a new Bowling Green. A Memorial Garden was opened in 2006.

Central Park, a 9.9 hectare site, is in the grounds of an early C18th house, acquired by East Ham UDC in 1896 as part of its policy to provide recreation grounds for the growing population. The park was opened in July 1898, and had avenues and walks, recreational open spaces, a sundial, drinking fountains and seats provided by the MPGA, and extensive ornamental gardens along its whole northern edge, which remain largely intact today. An open-air pool was provided in 1901 but closed in 1923. A miniature railway ran from 1946-1949.  A bandstand was removed in 1965.  Works in 1971 replaced the bandstand with an ornamental pond and fountain.  A restoration programme funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund was agreed in 2004 with works completed in 2007.

The area was largely farmland until the 1950s when Central Park was created in order to provide facilities for the families who were moving to the LCC's newly developed Harold Hill Estate; provision of the public park was designated in the LCC's estate layout of 1947. Central Park was provided with a cricket pitch and paddling pool, and a swimming pool was later opened in 1966 in the north west. The park is overlooked by two areas of ancient woodland, Long Wood and Sage Wood, and Paines Brook, a tributary of the Ingrebourne River, runs through the park.

Central Square was to be the focal point of Dame Henrietta Barnett's Hampstead Garden Suburb, the site selected for its height and views; its design underwent numerous revisions. Raymond Unwin's first design for the suburb (February 1905) had communal buildings including a church, chapel, hall, library and shops; the site of the square was to be levelled and extended to the north. Unwin and Edwin Lutyens, appointed architect in May 1906, proposed a more formal plan in 1906-7; this and a third scheme by Lutyens did not meet with Mrs Barnett's approval. The final plan of 1911 of Central Square as built is a variant on Lutyens' plan for a rectangle broken up into four clearly articulated spaces each defined by a double row of trees and a lily pond. The two churches face each other on the horizontal axis of the square, with the Institute centrally on the northern side. Prior to 1950 tennis courts were constructed on the western perimeter above the orchard.

Chadwell Heath Cemetery opened in 1934, provided by Dagenham UDC, with the first burial recorded on 1 June. At that time the area either side of Whalebone Lane was rural and initially only the eastern part of the cemetery was laid out with paths, open land remaining to the west. From the entrance a short drive led to the Mortuary Chapel from where a formal layout of paths radiated, with yews planted along the 'spokes'. Further paths formed a semi-circle with the chapel on its eastern edge, the circle completed when the burial ground was extended to the west. The cemetery has been further extended, most recently to the north.

Between Chalcot Gardens and Englands Lane is a narrow strip of shrubbery forming the common frontage of the houses of Chalcot Gardens, built in the 1880s and named after a farm which existed as Chaldecote Farm by 1253. By the C17th there was an Upper and a Lower Chalcots Farm, the latter later giving its name to Chalk Farm. An C18th owner of Upper Chalcot Farm, James England, gave his name to the road although it had existed for many years past as a path to the farm.

Chalcot Square, called St George's Square until 1937, was laid out between 1849-60 around a central garden enclosure. The name Chalcot recalls a farm of that name in the area from the C13th. The central garden was owned and maintained by the Trustees of the Broder Estate for the benefit of tenants of the square. It is now publicly accessible. Little changed since the original layout, the square today has children's play equipment in one corner.

Chaldon Way Gardens is a small ornamental garden opposite Coulsdon Memorial Ground. The site was given for a public garden to Coulsdon UDC in the 1930s by Fairdean Heights Ltd, the developer of the surrounding housing. An agreement was drawn up that enabled the Council to use 'such earth, turf, sub-soil, flowers and shrubs as can be removed from the Company's Fairdean Heights Estate'. As a result an ornamental garden was laid out with lawns, shrub beds and annual bedding displays, and with a a small shelter at one end.