Histories of Public Parks in Manchester and Salford and Their Role in Cultural Policies for Everyday Participation

Abstract

The establishment of public parks in England within the nineteenth century, and their ongoing creation and management, provides the basis for understanding changing relationships between local governance and administration, cultural policy formation and everyday participation, particularly within the industrial and post-industrial urban context. This chapter considers the history of public parks and their management in Manchester and Salford from the 1830s to the mid-twentieth century, drawing on archival research and focusing on three early parks within these cities, the first public municipal parks to be established in the UK. It outlines how the design and administration of these spaces contributed to strategies for the regulation and improvement of urban populations and informed urban cultural policies, with implicit and extrinsic effects on the provision of local popular entertainment, cultural education, class identity and taste formation. It argues that as spaces for everyday participation, parks offer opportunities for the articulation and negotiation of cultural tastes and values across different socio-economic classes, alongside popular forms of participation in arts, culture and leisure, and their use and value continue to inform cultural strategies for within the contemporary urban context.