The map above shows Regents Park, London in 1833. Although it had for centuries been the area of a royal hunting park, in the early 19th century the future George IV proposed it be given over as a public park, thus making it one of the first such designations. From the outset, the peripheral land was earmarked for private building, an idea adopted by Zachariah Pearson some decades later (s.p.b.s) although around Regent’s Park the properties built were mostly terraces of Georgian town houses such as those that have survived (on a more modest scale) on Albion St. and the north end of Beverley Road in Hull. Also shared between Regent’s Park and Pearson Park was a perimeter highway, although in both cases this would have initially been a ‘walk’. Although a public park Regent Park’s lay-out and development was funded by the Hanoverian royal family, indeed public access to the Park’s grounds was limited and at these times the local residents perambulated the Park as shared owners.
The policy of allocating peripheral land for housing continued to be followed in later parks than Pearson Park. People’s Park, Grimsby is a good surviving example; in Hull both East and West Parks were originally (1880s) to have surrounding houses although these plans were eventually dropped in both cases. Those at West Park were to be alongside Walton St., where the bowling greens, playground and skatepark now are. A row of late 19th century private residences alongside Walton St. ending with the fine Arts and Crafts style Carnegie Centre, as now, would have been an impressive sight. But would the residents have tolerated Hull Fair?
Unless something else comes to mind I will end the Housing History theme here.