Greenwich Park

The Royal Parks Agency defines its aims as  to manage the Royal Parks so that they:

• offer peaceful enjoyment, recreation, entertainment and delight to those who use them;
• are enhanced, protected and preserved for the benefit of this and future generations; and
• are mananged with efficiency and effectiveness and in accordance with the principles of public service as set out in the Citizen's Charter.

Before Greenwich Park was imparked, in 1433, it is likely that its character differed from that of Blackheath only through variations in relief, soils and microclimate. Keeping a herd of deer within the imparked area must have brought about changes. One can catch a glimpse of the ancient character in the deer enclosure which survives in the south east corner of Greenwich Park.

Greenwich Park was laid out in 1661 as an aesthetic design 'in the French manner'.  During the eighteenth century, it was somewhat converted to the style of Capability Brown. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the public gained progressively freer access, Greenwich came to have the character of a municipal public park. The new facilities included a flower garden, a boating pond, a tea pavilion, tennis courts, pitches for rugby and cricket. With the new enthusiasm for garden history, dating from the 1960s, there have been proposals for 'restoration', but a great problem in knowing what to restore. Henry VIII's hunting park? Charles II's Baroque avenues? The English landscape garden? The Victorian flower garden? The twentieth century public park? One could make a case for any of them, but one would have to fight off proponents of the alternatives. I believe the best solution is the policy which Geoffrey Jellicoe described as 'creative conservation'. Park planners should take the historical layers and weld them into a new harmony.