Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
other gaps in provision (e.g. the National Playing Fields Association formed in 1925)
recognised the need for space in urban areas to support the role of sport. Likewise, the
Physical Training and Recreational Act 1937 effectively signalled the emergence of
public sector aid from central government for local authority provision of playing fields,
gymnasia and swimming baths.
Phase 3: expansion
During the post-war period several key trends emerged including 'greater levels and
diversity of provision in which traditional resources established in earlier phases have
been augmented by new forms of provision designed to reflect the diversity and
flexibility of contemporary recreational tastes' (S.Williams 1995:20). In fact, one
common theme is the recognition of recreation as an element in statutory planning
procedures as the range and consumption of land for recreational purposes increased.
However, according to Williams (1995:21), in the absence of theoretical approaches to
describing and explaining the pattern of recreation resources in urban areas, the approach
to the task must inevitably become empirical, outlining the typical patterns of provision
where older parks and recreation grounds are concentrated towards the core of the
settlement (see the case of Leicester, below), while newer parks and grounds associated
with inter-war and post-1945 housing produce further significant zones of provision to
the periphery of the city. The outer edges of the built area are important for provision of
extensive facilities such as sports grounds and golf courses.
While these conclusions are typical of recreational land use patterns in many towns
and cities in England and Wales, one must question the extent to which a purely
empirical analysis truly explains the spatial development of recreational resources in
Britain's urban areas. For this reason it is valuable to consider the social, economic and
political processes which contributed to the spatial organisation and occurrence of urban
recreation in such areas in the period after 1800, because traditional empirical analyses
are devoid of the diversity of people and users of such resources. For this reason, a series
of historical snapshots taken in 1800, the 1840s, 1880s, 1920s, 1960s and post-1960s help
to explain how present-day patterns were shaped.
URBAN RECREATION: A SOCIO-GEOGRAPHIC
PERSPECTIVE
According to J.Clark and Crichter (1985), during the evolution of a capitalist society such
as Britain, the analysis of leisure and recreation has traditionally emphasised institutional
forms of provision, while each social class has its own history of organised and informal
leisure and recreation. The predominant urban histories are those of male leisure, with
female leisure and recreation structured around the family with free-time activities
associated with the family, the street and neighbourhood in working-class society. Within
historical analyses of urban recreation during the evolution of mass urban society in
Victorian and Edwardian Britain, the emergence of distinctive forms of urban recreation
and leisure and their spatial occurrence within different social areas of cities has been
associated with a number of concepts, the most notable being 'popular culture' (see
