Editing Park (section)

===Urban parks===
[[File:Yoyogi Park from Hyatt.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Yoyogi Park]] is a large urban park in [[Tokyo]].]]
{{Main|Urban park|Urban green space}}

A park is an area of open space provided for recreational use, usually owned and maintained by a local government. Parks commonly resemble [[savanna]]s or open [[woodland]]s, the types of [[landscape]] that human beings find most relaxing. [[Grass]] is typically kept short to discourage [[insect]] pests and to allow for the enjoyment of [[picnic]]s and sporting activities. Trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide [[shade (shadow)|shade]].

Some early parks include the [[La Alameda, Seville|la Alameda de Hércules]], in [[Seville]], a promenaded public mall, urban garden and park built in 1574, within the historic center of Seville; the [[City Park (Budapest)|City Park]], in Budapest, Hungary, which was property of the Batthyány family and was later made public.

An early purpose built public park was [[Derby Arboretum]] which was opened in 1840 by Joseph Strutt for the mill workers and people of the city. This was closely followed by [[Princes Park, Liverpool|Princes Park]] in the [[Liverpool]] suburb of [[Toxteth]], laid out to the designs of [[Joseph Paxton]] from 1842 and opened in 1843. The land on which the Princes park was built was purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates, an iron merchant and philanthropist, in 1841 for £50,000. The creation of Princes Park showed great foresight and introduced a number of highly influential ideas. First and foremost was the provision of open space for the benefit of townspeople and local residents within an area that was being rapidly built up. Secondly it took the concept of the designed landscape as a setting for the suburban domicile, an idea pioneered by [[John Nash (architect)|John Nash]] at [[Regent's Park]], and re-fashioned it for the provincial town in a most original way. Nash's remodeling of St James's Park from 1827 and the sequence of processional routes he created to link The Mall with Regent's Park completely transformed the appearance of London's West End. With the establishment of Princes Park in 1842, Joseph Paxton did something similar for the benefit of a provincial town, albeit one of international stature by virtue of its flourishing mercantile contingent. Liverpool had a burgeoning presence on the scene of global maritime trade before 1800 and during the Victorian era its wealth rivaled that of London itself.

The form and layout of Paxton's ornamental grounds, structured about an informal lake within the confines of a serpentine carriageway, put in place the essential elements of his much imitated design for [[Birkenhead Park]]. The latter was commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance and deployed the ideas he pioneered at Princes Park on a more expansive scale. [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited as having been one of the principal influences on Olmsted and Calvert's design for New York's Central Park of 1857.

There are around an estimated 27,000 public parks in the [[United Kingdom]], with around 2.6&nbsp;billion visits to parks each year. Many are of cultural and historical interest, with 300 registered by [[Historic England]] as of national importance. Most public parks have been provided and run by local authorities over the past hundred and seventy years, but these authorities have no statutory duty to fund or maintain these public parks.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Layton-Jones|first=K|date=2016|title=History of Public Park Funding and Management (1820 – 2010) Historic England Research Report 20/2016|url=https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=15442&ru=/Results.aspx?p=1&n=10&tsk=History%2520of%2520Public%2520Park%2520Funding%2520and%2520Management%2520(1820%2520%25e2%2580%2593%25202010)&ns=1|access-date=June 28, 2020|website=research.historicengland.org.uk}}</ref> In 2016 the [[National Lottery Heritage Fund|Heritage Lottery Fund]]'s ''State of UK Public Parks'' reported that "92 per cent of park managers report their maintenance budgets have reduced in the past three years and 95 per cent expect their funding will continue to reduce".<ref>{{Cite web|title=State of UK Public Parks 2016 {{!}} The National Lottery Heritage Fund|url=https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/publications/state-uk-public-parks-2016|access-date=June 28, 2020|website=www.heritagefund.org.uk|date=November 29, 2016 }}</ref>

[[File:NYC - Manhattan - Central-Park.jpg|thumb|[[Central Park]] in [[New York City]] is the most-visited urban park in the U.S.<ref name="CPC">{{cite web|url=http://www.centralparknyc.org/about/about-cpc |title=About the Central Park Conservancy|website= Central Park Conservancy|access-date=July 15, 2010}}</ref>]]

Another early public park is the [[Peel Park, Salford]], England opened on August 22, 1846.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.salford.gov.uk/leisure/parks/publicparks/parks-bb.htm |title=Parks in Broughton and Blackfriars |date=August 6, 2007 |work=[[Salford City Council]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221180427/http://www.salford.gov.uk/leisure/parks/publicparks/parks-bb.htm |archive-date=February 21, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.manchester2002-uk.com/day-trips/parks-gardens/ |title=Public Parks & Gardens in Manchester |website=Manchester UK |access-date=September 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922182525/http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/daytrips/parks-gardens.html |archive-date=September 22, 2007 |url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>[http://www.buhu.salford.ac.uk/virtualtours/index.php University of Salford: Peel Park] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219203655/http://www.buhu.salford.ac.uk/virtualtours/index.php |date=December 19, 2008 }} Retrieved on September 7, 2008</ref> Another possible claimant for status as the world's first public park is [[Boston Common]] (Boston, Massachusetts, US), set aside in 1634, whose first recreational promenade, Tremont Mall, dates from 1728. True park status for the entire common seems to have emerged no later than 1830, when the grazing of cows was ended and renaming the Common as Washington Park was proposed (renaming the bordering Sentry Street to Park Street in 1808 already acknowledged the reality).