1.
Park
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A park is an area of natural, semi-natural, or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of areas, rocks, soil, and trees. In North America, many parks have fields for playing such as soccer, baseball and football. Many parks have trails for walking, biking and other activities, some parks are built adjacent to bodies of water or watercourses and may comprise a beach or boat dock area. Often, the smallest parks are in areas, where a park may take up only a city block or less. Urban parks often have benches for sitting and may contain picnic tables, the largest parks can be vast natural areas of hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, with abundant wildlife and natural features such as mountains and rivers. In many large parks, camping in tents is allowed with a permit, many natural parks are protected by law, and users may have to follow restrictions. Large national and sub-national parks are typically overseen by a ranger or a park warden. Large parks may have areas for canoeing and hiking in the months and, in some northern hemisphere countries. The first parks were English deer parks, land set aside for hunting by royalty and they had walls or thick hedges around them to keep game animals in and people out. It was strictly forbidden for commoners to hunt animals in these deer parks and these game preserves evolved into landscaped parks set around mansions and country houses from the sixteenth century onwards. These may have served as hunting grounds but they also proclaimed the owners wealth, an aesthetic of landscape design began in these stately home parks where the natural landscape was enhanced by landscape architects such as Capability Brown. As cities became crowded, the hunting grounds became places for the public. With the Industrial revolution parks took on a new meaning as areas set aside to preserve a sense of nature in the cities, sporting activity came to be a major use for these urban parks. Areas of outstanding natural beauty were also set aside as national parks to prevent their being spoiled by uncontrolled development, in some parks or time periods with high pollen counts, parks tend to be avoided. Park design is influenced by the purpose and audience, as well as by the available land features. A park intended to provide recreation for children may include a playground, a park primarily intended for adults may feature walking paths and decorative landscaping. Specific features, such as riding trails, may be included to support specific activities, the design of a park may determine who is willing to use it
2.
London Borough of Southwark
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The London Borough of Southwark /ˈsʌðərk/ in south London, England forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963, all districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council, Dulwich is home to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum is in Elephant and Castle. The area was first settled in the Roman period but the name Southwark dates from the 9th century, the London Borough of Southwark was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark, the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, and the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey. The borough borders the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to the north, the London Borough of Lambeth to the west, to the south are the London Borough of Bromley and the London Borough of Croydon. At the 2001 census Southwark had a population of 244,866, Southwark is ethnically 63% white, 16% black African and 8% black Caribbean. The area is the home of many Nigerian, Jamaican, South African, Polish, Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge all connect the City of London to the borough. The skyscraper Shard London Bridge is currently the tallest building in the EU, the Tate Modern art gallery, Shakespeares Globe Theatre, the Imperial War Museum and Borough Market are also within the borough. At one mile wide, Burgess Park is Southwarks largest green space, Southwark has many notable places of Christian worship, Anglican, Roman Catholic and independent non-conformist. These include Charles Spurgeons Metropolitan Tabernacle, Southwark Cathedral, St Georges Cathedral, Londons Norwegian Church and Finnish Church and the Swedish Seamens Church are all in Rotherhithe. St George the Martyr is the oldest church in Greater London dedicated to Englands Patron Saint, the other redundant church is Francis Bedfords in Trinity Church Square, now a recording studio, Henry Wood Hall. Whilst Christianity is the dominant religion of the borough, several religious minorities are also active, according to the 2001 Census, approximately 28% of Southwark identified as non-religious, or chose not to state their faith. Charles Dickens set several of his novels in the old borough where he lived as a young man, the site of The Tabard inn, the White Hart inn and the George Inn which survives. The rebuilt Globe Theatre and its exhibition on the Bankside remind us of the areas being the birthplace of classical theatre, there is also the remains of the Rose Theatre. In 2007 the Unicorn Theatre for Children was opened on Tooley Street with both the Southwark Playhouse and the Union Theatre having premises in Bermondsey Street, the Menier Chocolate Factory combines a theatre and exhibition space. The Bankside Gallery is the headquarters of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Golden Hinde replica is at St Mary Overie Dock and nearby are the remains of the medieval Winchester Palace which is a scheduled ancient monument. Peckham Library, designed by Will Alsop won the Stirling Prize for modern architecture, the museum was closed by Southwark council in 2008. MOCA, London, as curated by the artist Michael Petry, is a museum located in Peckham Rye dedicated to exposing and showcasing new cutting-edge artists
3.
Camberwell
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Until 1889 it was part of the County of Surrey. In 1900 the original became the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell. Then in 1965 most of the Borough of Camberwell was merged into the London Borough of Southwark, to the west part of both West Dulwich and Herne Hill come under the London Borough of Lambeth. Camberwell appears in the Domesday Book as Cambrewelle, the name may derive from the Old English Cumberwell or Comberwell, meaning Well of the Britons, referring to remaining Celtic inhabitants of an area dominated by Anglo-Saxons. Springs and wells are known to have existed on the slope of Denmark Hill. It was already a settlement with a church when mentioned in the Domesday Book. It was held by Haimo the Sheriff and its domesday assets were,6 hides and 1 virgate,1 church,8 ploughs,63 acres of meadow, woodland worth 60 hogs. Up to the century, Camberwell was visited by Londoners for its rural tranquillity. Like much of inner South London, Camberwell was transformed by the arrival of the railways in the 1860s, Camberwell St Giles formed an ancient, and later civil, parish in the Brixton hundred of Surrey. The parish covered 4,570 acres in 1831 and was divided into the liberty of Peckham to the east, the width of the parish tapered in the south to form a point at what is now known as the Crystal Palace area. In 1801 the population was 7,059 and by 1851 this had risen to 54,667, in 1889 the board was replaced by the London County Council and Camberwell was removed from Surrey, to form part of the County of London. In 1900 the area of the Camberwell parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, in 1965 the metropolitan borough was abolished and its former area became the southern part of the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. The western part of the area is situated in the adjacent London Borough of Lambeth, Camberwell today is a mixture of relatively well preserved Georgian and 20th-century housing, including a number of tower blocks. Camberwell Grove, Grove Lane and Addington Square have some of Londons most elegant, the Salvation Armys William Booth Memorial Training College, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, was completed in 1932, it towers over South London from Denmark Hill. Camberwell is home to one of Londons largest teaching hospitals, Kings College Hospital with associated medical school the Guy’s King’s, the Maudsley Hospital, an internationally significant psychiatric hospital, is located in Camberwell along with the Institute of Psychiatry. Early music halls in Camberwell were in the hall of public houses. One, the Father Redcap still stands by Camberwell Green, but internally, in 1896, the Dan Leno company opened the Oriental Palace of Varieties, on Denmark Hill. This successful venture was replaced with a new theatre, designed by Ernest A. E
4.
Bermondsey
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Bermondsey is a district in south London, and a part of the London Borough of Southwark. Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, Bermondsey appears in Domesday Book as Bermundesy and Bermundesye. It was then held by King William, though a part was in the hands of Robert, Count of Mortain, the kings half brother. Its Domesday assets were recorded as including 13 hides, a new and handsome church,5 ploughs,20 acres of meadow and it also included interests in London, in respect of which 13 burgesses paid 44d. The church mentioned in Domesday Book was presumably the nascent Bermondsey Abbey, which was founded as a Cluniac priory in 1082, monks from the abbey began the development of the area, cultivating the land and embanking the riverside. They turned an adjacent tidal inlet at the mouth of the River Neckinger into a dock, but Bermondsey then was little more than a high street ribbon, leading from the southern bank of the Thames, at Tooley Street, up to the abbey close. The Knights Templar also owned land here and gave their names to one of the most distinctive streets in London, King Edward III built a manor house close to the Thames in Bermondsey in 1353. The excavated foundations are visible next to Bermondsey Wall East close to the famous Angel public house, as it developed over the centuries, Bermondsey underwent some striking changes. A pleasure garden was founded there in the 17th century, commemorated by the Cherry Garden Pier, Samuel Pepys visited Jamaica House at Cherry Gardens in 1664 and recorded in his diary that he had left it singing finely. Though not many survive from this era, one notable exception is the church of St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey Street. This church came through both 19th-century redevelopment and The Blitz unscathed and it is not just an unusual survivor for Bermondsey, buildings of this era are relative rarities in Inner London in general. A new church was built for the population of the area. It was from the Bermondsey riverside that the painter J. M. W, turner executed his famous painting of The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, depicting the veteran warship being towed to Rotherhithe to be scrapped. By the mid-19th century parts of Bermondsey, especially along the riverside had become a notorious slum — with the arrival of industrial plants, docks, the area around St Saviours Dock, known as Jacobs Island, was one of the worst in London. Dickens provides a description of what it was like. Bermondsey Town Hall was built on Spa Road in 1881 but Blitzed in 1941, the area was extensively redeveloped during the 19th century and early 20th century with the expansion of the river trade and the arrival of the railways. Londons first passenger railway terminus was built by the London to Greenwich Railway in 1836 at London Bridge, the first section to be used was between the Spa Road Station and Deptford High Street. This local station had closed by 1915, the industrial boom of the 19th century was an extension of Bermondseys manufacturing role in earlier eras
5.
Peckham
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Peckham is a district of south-east London, England,3.5 miles south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward of the London Borough of Southwark had a population of 11,381. Peckham was originally part of the parish of Camberwell, which became the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, and also included Camberwell, Dulwich, Nunhead. Peckham is a Saxon place name meaning the village of the River Peck, archaeological evidence indicates earlier Roman occupation in the area, although the name of this settlement is lost. Peckham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Pecheham and it was held by the Bishop of Lisieux from Odo of Bayeux. Its Domesday assets were,2 hides and it had land for 1 plough,2 acres of meadow. The manor was owned by King Henry I, who gave it to his son Robert, when Robert married the heiress to Camberwell the two manors were united under royal ownership. King John probably hunted at Peckham and local anecdotes suggest that the right to a fair was granted to celebrate a particularly good days sport. The fair grew to be a major event lasting three weeks until its abolition in 1827. Peckham became popular as a residential area by the 16th century. By the 18th century the area was a commercial centre. Peckham also boasted extensive market gardens and orchards growing produce for the markets of London. Local produce included melons, figs and grapes, the formal gardens of the Peckham Manor House, rebuilt in 1672 by Sir Thomas Bond were particularly noticeable and can be seen on the Rocque map of 1746. The manor house was sacked in 1688, as its then owner Sir Henry Bond was a Roman Catholic, the house was finally demolished in 1797 for the formation of Peckham Hill Street, as the Shard family developed the area. Today Shards Terrace, the block that contains Manzes Pie and Mash shop, the village was the last stopping point for many cattle drovers taking their livestock for sale in London. The drovers stayed in the local inns while the cattle were safely secured overnight in holding pens, most of the villagers were agricultural or horticultural workers but with the early growth of the suburbs an increasing number worked in the brick industry that exploited the local London Clay. In 1767 William Blake visited Peckham Rye and had a vision of an angel in a tree, in 1993, at the request of the Dulwich Festival, artist Stan Peskett painted a mural of Blakes vision next to the Goose Green playground in East Dulwich. At the beginning of the 19th century, Peckham was a small, quiet, since 1744 stagecoaches had travelled with an armed guard between Peckham and London to give protection from highwaymen
6.
Parks and open spaces in London
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There are many parks and open spaces in Greater London, England. Green space in central London consists of eight Royal Parks, supplemented by a number of garden squares scattered throughout the city centre. The centrepieces of Greater Londons park system are the eight Royal Parks of London, covering 1976 hectares, they are former royal hunting grounds which are now open to the public. Green Park 16 ha St. Notable examples open to the public are Russell Square in Bloomsbury, Lincolns Inn Fields in Holborn, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea contains over a hundred garden squares whose use is restricted to residents. The upkeep of these squares is paid for through a levy on top of residents council tax, in addition to these spaces, a large number of council-owned parks were developed between the mid 19th century and the Second World War. Crystal Palace Park, South London 80 ha Victoria Park 86.18 ha, some cemeteries provide extensive green land within the city — notably Highgate Cemetery, burial place of Karl Marx and Michael Faraday amongst others. All Outer London boroughs contain sections of the green belt. There are over a hundred registered commons in London, ranging in size from small fragments of land to large expanses, there are two historic lavender fields in the London Borough of Sutton. One, at Oaks Way, Carshalton Beeches is three acres in size and is run as a community project. The other, a 25-acre commercial site in Croydon Lane called Mayfield, is popular with tourists, situated on the North Downs of Surrey, the locality is ideal for lavender cultivation, owing to the chalky free-draining nature of the soil. It was known as the Lavender Capital of the World from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, with production of the plant centred here. There are several types of London greenways including The Greenway and the Thames Path
