Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces
See also List of parks, gardens and open spaces in Norwich
Chapelfield Gardens in central Norwich became the city's first public park in November 1880. From the start of the 20th-century Norwich Corporation now Norwich City Council began buying and leasing land to develop parks when funds became available. Sewell Park and James Stuart Gardens are examples of land donated by benefactors.
After World War I the corporation took advantage of government grants and made the decision to construct a series of formal parks as a means to alleviate unemployment. Under the guidance of Parks Superintendent Captain Sandys-Winsch four parks were completed; Heigham Park (1924), Wensum Park (1925), Eaton Park (1928), Waterloo Park (1933). These parks retain many features fron Sandys-Winsch's original plans and have been placed on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.
Currently (2011), the city has 23 parks, 95 open spaces and 59 natural areas managed by the local authority. In addition there are several privately owned gardens which are occasionally opened to the public in aid of charity with the exception of the Plantation Garden located close to the St John the Baptist Cathedral which opens daily.
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Famous quotes containing the words gardens, open and/or spaces:
“It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Who shall forbid a wise skepticism, seeing that there is no practical question on which any thing more than an approximate solution can be had? Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Surely, we are provided with senses as well fitted to penetrate the spaces of the real, the substantial, the eternal, as these outward are to penetrate the material universe. Veias, Menu, Zoroaster, Socrates, Christ, Shakespeare, Swedenborg,—these are some of our astronomers.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)