Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
element is parkland. The City of Leicester Local Plan aim is to have public open space
within 500 metres of every home. Within new residential developments, the City Council
require developers to provide 1.6 ha of open space
per 1000 people housed. As a result Leicester recreation space is an average of only 2.9
km from the city centre for parks/gardens, 3.6 km for recreation grounds, 3.5 km for
playing fields, 3.7 km for sports grounds and 4.6 km for golf courses illustrating the role
of low cost land for such facilities. Thus, as S.Williams (1995) argues the level of
recreational opportunity in modern-day Leicester increases with distance from the city.
The result of such patterns of park development and other recreational resources in the
case of Leicester is the rationalisation of provision into a geographical planning
framework whereby an open space hierarchy results with different parks fulfilling
different functions according to their size, characteristics and resource base.
SUMMARY POINTS
The historical evolution of the urban parks was inextricably linked to wider processes
of urban industrial change in the Victorian period. Politics, paternalism and a desire to
provide formal con texts for recreation and leisure are a starting point to understand the
philosophy and ideology associated with park development. The evolution of parks and
open space passed through a series of philosophical changes, from the formal park and
recreation grounds in the Victorian and Edwardian periods to multipurpose parks in the
inter-war years and open space provision as part of post-war housing reconstruction with
council house estates. The political motivation for open space provision and the role of
different social groups in developing investment and development in local neighbourhood
is an under-explored area. Leicester City Council has developed an enviable open space
provision for a western city, with a well-developed network of leisure spaces. Outdoor
recreation, open space provision and the hierarchy of leisure spaces has a distinct
geographical pattern. As one moves further away from the city centre, the level of open
space provision increases, reflecting the Victorian, Edwardian and inter-war pattern of
provision which has strongly influenced the current day patterns.
METHODS OF ANALYSING URBAN RECREATION
Within the limited literature on urban recreation, the geographer has developed a number
of concepts used within human geography and applied them in a recreational context to
understand how the supply of recreational resources fits within the broader recreational
context. For example, the use of the concept of a 'hierarchy of facilities' (Patmore 1983)
highlights the catchment relating to the users' willingness, ability and knowledge of the
facility or resource (S.L.J.Smith 1983a). What the hierarchy concept does is allow one to
ascertain what type of catchment a recreational resource has at different spatial scales,
taking into account users' willingness to travel to use them. Constraints of time and
distance act as a friction on the potential use of resources. The outcome is an ordered
pattern of resources which serve specific catchments depending on their characteristics,
whereby the typical levels of provision may include
