LArch 60.

1 Paper of Landscape Comparison

The Battle of the Parks

Jordan Woods
Spring 2015

There will always be competition between countries in areas such as education, economy,
and quality of life, but few people realize that countries also compete over the beauty of public
parks. There are thousands of city parks around the world, and some cities have more than one
park. Parks can be valuable attractions for tourists and locals alike. Arguably, two of the best
parks in the world are Central Park in downtown New York City, United States, and Hyde Park
in downtown London, England. Both parks are of great size and stature, and each has its own
identity and individual beauty. Both parks also share similar characteristics in features and
design. Central Park came a long way from a garbage dump to a beautiful piece of landscape
shared with the American public. Hyde Park was originally an exclusive hunting park that
transitioned into a public park in London.
The idea of Central Park first started when the Mount Auburn Cemetery was constructed
in New York in the later part of 1831. The idea of a park for the public grew rapidly, and roughly
9 cemeteries in 9 large cities across America were transitioned into early versions of them on the
basis that friends and family could both visit their departed loved ones and enjoy the beauty of
nature on a Sunday afternoon (Chapman).
The New York Park Act of 1851 was established to allow the city government to purchase
a piece of land using tax dollars on the basis that the land was to be developed and then used by
the public (Beblo). The original land that was bought was called Joness Woods which was a
small, square plot of land that was only 160 acres. Frederick Law Olmsted, who partnered with
Calvert Vaux, declined Joness Woods because it was too small for the plan that they wanted to
implement. The purchase of Central Park was finalized which gave the two architects 840 acres
to work develop. According to class notes presented by Josh Beblo, there were three guidelines
Olmsted and Vaux had to abide by. First, the master plan should all future decisions of the park.
Second, Olmsted and Vaux had to consider the site conditions which will be discussed later in the
paper, and third, the park has to be developed over time and cannot be developed at once.
Before any planning of the park was created, there were characteristics that needed to be
addressed. First, the city park was 840 acres, and this was a lot of land that needed to be
developed and carefully examined. Furthermore, the land that was purchased was literally a

dump for the city. Squatters and the homeless also used the land,
and various pastures for cattle and livestock existed on the property.
The plot of land had natural water reservoirs scattered throughout,
but on top of all these issues, there were also large rocks scattered
across the land as seen in Figure 1 (on right).
With all the problems the property had, Olmsted and Vaux

Figure 1

did a fantastic job in designing the park. While using their own ideas for the park, they used
influences by three main legendary landscape artists. They used bits and pieces from each artist
to develop the perfect plan. The first was Lancelot Brown, an English landscape artist, and he
was a strong believer that the land had to be touched by man. This idea was used by Olmsted
and Vaux in their final design of Central Park. They also used Humphry Reptons method of
using before and after sketches to help portray their idea of the design of the park. They finally
used Prince Puckers idea that nature offers therapeutic values (Beblo). The intended purpose
that Olmsted and Vaux had was to provide the best practical means of a healthful recreation of all
inhabitants of the park.
Much earlier in time, the modern-day Hyde Park was in its beginning stages. In 1536,
King Henry VIII stole 625 acres called the Manor of Hyde from the canons of Westminster
Abbey (Lennon). Henry VIII quickly made the manor a private hunting park in which he could
hunt deer and wild boar. There was a stream called the Westbourne that crossed through the
middle of the park, and Henry VIII dammed that stream to create a larger pond for the deer to
drink. He also put up a fence around the area to keep the rest of the public out. Visitors would
watch from the stands as Henry VIII and various ambassadors organized royal hunts (Lennon).
The tradition of the hunting park continued with Queen Elizabeth I.
Once Charles I became King in 1625, he created a ring within the park where the royal
court members could drive their carriages. He then opened the park to the public in 1637. Hyde
Park became very popular to visitors and residents. During the civil war in England from 16421649, numerous troops built earthworks into the east side of the park to help defend the city of
Westminster. An earthwork is a man made large bank of soil used as a defense mechanism.
Due to a new monarchy in 1660, the Park became a private park again for the royals.
King Charles II replaced the old wooden fence with a brick wall and also restocked the park with
more deer. 19 years later, William and Mary became King and Queen in 1689. Big changes

happened during the reign of William and Mary; they bought the Nottingham House on the
western edge of the park and divided Hyde Park. In order for the King and Queen to get from the
palace to Westminster, they traveled through Hyde Park as seen as the red line in Figure 2. This
road was lit by over 300 oil lamps and was the first road in England that was lit at night. The
route was officially called route de roi, or Kings Road, but later became known as Rotten Row
Hyde Park

because of all of the horse manure

(Lennon).
The first landscaping of Hyde Park
was done by Charles Bridgeman for
Queen Caroline in 1733 (Lennon).
Bridgeman took about 300 acres from
Hyde Park and made it Kensington
Gardens. This was done with a ha-ha,a
ditch that separated the two parks. This

Kensington Gardens

can be seen as the blue line in Figure 2.

Bridgeman also furthered the dam in the

Figure 2

Westbourne stream, making the small pond into a lake known today as Serpentine Lake. This
lake was the first lake that looked natural; all other lakes were unnatural looking being long and
straight.
For approximately 100 years (until the 1820s), the land was untouched until King
George IV ordered a makeover. With the help of Decimus Burton, he created a monumental
entrance in the south east corner of Hyde Park (as shown in Figure 3). Burton also
distinguished the brick walls with railings, and he designed several new lodges and
gates around the park. With the help of John Rennie, he designed and built over the
Serpentine Lake. In 1851, Joseph Paxton built his crystal palace right alongside
Rotten Row; this was soon taken down and rebuilt in a different part of the city. The

Figure 3

final rendition of the park was added in 2004 with the addition of the fountain for

Princess Diana. The Park today is a clear resemblance of the work done by Decimus Burton
(Lennon).
Even though Hyde Park was around a long time before Central Park was constructed,
they both have similarities between them that make them a lot alike. First, they are both city

parks. These parks were both precedent makers for all public city parks in the world. Both parks
have English Landscape School (ELS) characteristics. As said in class, the various uses of voids
were used prevalently in Central Park. Voids were large areas of green pastures, large lakes or
reservoirs. The protruding rock sculptures allowed voids in the landscape that created various
views both inside and outside (Beblo). Hyde Park also had ELS characteristics by using voids
with the trees and the dammed lake in the middle. The use of bridges was also a characteristic of
both Hyde Park and Central Park. Bridges in Central Park were used as a separate level to keep
the car traffic and the walking traffic in different places. The bridges used in Hyde Park were
used for both walking and carriages. One last similarity between the two parks was the use of
pathways that cut across the park to get car and carriages from one side to the other. In Central
Park, it was the four transverse roads that cut across the long park. In Hyde Park, it was Rotten
Row that cut across the park.
Although there were many similarities, there were also differences between the two
parks. First, Hyde Park had a lot of French characteristics. For
example, before the park was split in two, the paths were really
geometric like Versailles or Hampton Court (A View on
Cities). As seen in the image to the right (Figure 4), there is a
goose foot in the west side of the park. In Figure 4, it is easy to
see allies and round points that were prevalent in the French
landscape. Unlike Hyde Park, Central Parks pathways were

Figure 4

not straight; they all had smooth, gentle curves to them. In Hyde Park, there is a grand entrance
of monumental scale. Hyde Park also has metal rails running around the outside while Central
Park does not (Camilleri). There was also a large outer path that surrounds Central Park.
Individually, the parks have many differences between them that are easy to pick out,
especially with Hyde Park having many tributes to the French landscapes. Mutually, the parks
share many characteristics from the English Landscape School. Both parks are beautiful and
have their unique characteristics that set them apart. These are two of the arguably most beautiful
and well-developed parks out of the thousands of city parks across the world.

Works Cited
A View on Cities. 2015. 24 March 2015. <http://www.aviewoncities.com/london/hydepark.htm>.
Beblo, Josh. "Class Notes "Central Park"." State College: Jordan Woods, 2015. Class Notes.
Camilleri, Michael. " A winter sky and green and blue Hyde Park, London." roads of stone 20
March 2007: 4. Magazine article.
Chapman, Ann E. Mount Auburn Cemetery. n.d. 24 March 2015.
<http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/massachusetts_conservation/mount_auburn.html>.
Lennon, Linda. The Royal Parks. 2014. 2015.