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Stanley Park
The designer, Edward Kemp (1817-1891) was a nationally renowned landscape designer who trained under Joseph Paxton, and it is one of his major works.
Its design represents a distillation of Kemp’s work incorporating formal and informal elements and including a picturesque lake.
The major elements of the design remain intact or restored.
The integration of architectural features (mainly by Edward Robson (1836-1917), then City Architect) into the landscape. Several of these are Listed Buildings in their own right.
In social terms the park was created for the benefit of the working class as a true public park.
Larges areas of open ground were conceived for the use for more working class sports, in particular football, rather than the more typi9cal provision for tennis and cricket which were seen as more middle class.
The Park consists of three main areas, a formal terraced area, an informal middle area, and a ‘picturesque lake. To the south east and area of open grassland was provided for sports. The lake was originally ornamental but was subsequently used for boating and in 1923 developed for bathing. The latter use closed in 1960.
A conservatory and bandstand were added in 1899 and still survive, but other later features such as bowling greens, an open air theatre and a sports centre, have come and gone.
In the period 2007-2009 a major restoration project was undertaken to restore the park as nearly as possible to Kemp’s original concept and this is how the park presents itself today.
(Information extracted from the English Heritage listing, List Entry Number 1001000. This contains a detailed description of the park and its designers and can be found here [[Link

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