Written evidence submitted by Hal Moggridge OBE VMH PPLI FIHort RIBA

 

 

  1. SUMMARY: The Inner London Royal Parks are visited by 25 million people each year, of whom one third are from overseas, thus bringing in a substantial sum of foreign money to the exchequer; similarly gardens outside London attract overseas visitors.  These sources of income, inevitably indirect because vegetation is not a measurable commodity, deserve recognition, including financial support for gardens.  VisitBritain should in future include gardens in their tables.  The benefits of gardens to human health deserves inclusion in the select committee’s consideration.  Gardens are as great a part of the national heritage as other features such as buildings, indeed the naturalistic “English Garden” is sometimes claimed as Britain’s most original contribution to European artistic endeavour. The historic associations of gardens deserve to be fully recognised.
  2. I am a consultant landscape architect to the practice Colvin & Moggridge.  My work has included consultancy to The Inner London Royal Parks (1992 – 2004), master plan and stage 1 of The National Botanic Garden of Wales (1995 – 2000), circulation plan and new glasshouse for the RHS at Wisley, landscape restoration for Blenheim Park, Knole Park, Castle Hill and others.  I have served on the Royal Fine Art Commission, the Architectural Panel of the National Trust, and still sit on the ICOMOS international and UK cultural landscape committees.
  3. In 1992-3 the Royal Parks Review published, as an appendix to their reports, research into the origin of visitors to the Inner London Royal Parks.  It was revealed that nearly a third of the visitors came from overseas. (Hyde Park 31%, Kensington Gardens 28%, St James’s and Green Parks 33% in October). There were altogether 15 million visits to St James’s Park in 1992 and 10 million to Hyde Park. 
  4. This means that there were some 8 million visits to London’s Inner Royal Parks by overseas visitors in that year.  Up to date figures are available from the Royal Parks (chief executive Andrew Scattergood, the Old Police House, Hyde Park, W2 2UH hq@royalparks.org.uk), and it is understood that this pattern continues.  If one assumes that each visit takes half a day and that an average daily expenditure by an overseas visitor is £100 per day, then the Royal Parks contribute £400,000,000 per annum towards the overseas income of London, a notable contribution to our capital’s wealth.
  5. On this basis alone the Royal Parks, which are free to visit, deserve substantial financial support by government, disregarding their inestimable value to the British population.
  6. The same analysis also identified the qualities which visitors to these gardens most value.  The five most important features are: trees and greenery, peace and quiet, clean and well kept, fresh air, wide open space/ freedom to wander.  Facilities, though valued, were only half as important as these precious spiritual characteristics of gardens, characteristics which do not produce income but involve expenditure for upkeep. 
  7. A park like Blenheim demonstrates that a comparable indirect contribution is being made to the British exchequer by all the parks and gardens throughout the British Isles.  Blenheim is also a supreme example of the naturalistic “English Garden” style, claimed by many authorities to be Britain’s most original contribution to the visual arts. 
  8. Most of the tables published by VisitBritain have failed to include gardens. In future they should do so in order that it is clearer where financial support will be sensible.  Inevitably gardens do not provide a direct income source since the trees and flowers and reflections in lakes are elements of nature rather than commodities. 
  9. The request for evidence does not mention the benefits to human health provided by gardens.  Yet this is an invaluable part of their contribution.  Modern research has proved the truth of W.H.Hudson’s assertion: “The change, from ….. stone-paved noisy street, to the open ,green ,comparatively quiet park, is indeed great, and its benefit to body and mind incalculable.” Recent scientific research shows even a short walk in a garden space to be of great value in alleviating stress. (e.g. research for MIND under Professor Jules Pretty at the University of Essex; article in ‘The Lancet’ 373, 2008, by R.Mitchell & F.Popham; etc).
  10. The contribution of gardens to the national heritage is too little acknowledged. Take St James’s Park as an example:  Charles II understood the political value of a publicly accessible park  when he had St James’s Park remodelled for access by all on his accession in 1660, perhaps the first public gardens in post Roman Europe. ‘Mrs Pinchwife: “Pray, sister, where are the best fields and woods to walk in, in London?”; Alithea: “A pretty question! Why sister, Mulberry Garden and St James’s Park….” (The Country Wife Act II scene I, by Wycherley 1675)’.  Then in 1827 “The Earl of Liverpool (prime minister) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer lay before the Board a Plan … (by which) the whole of the space in St James’s Park, now laid out in grass, and from which the Public are excluded, will be thrown open, with the exception of the parts to be planted, for the use of persons on foot.” (Treasury Minute 19/01/1827). Thus by enlightened instruction at the highest political level the romantic interior of the public gardens of St James’s Park were commissioned.
  11. Every garden throughout the land has some history to reveal, such as the heritage of Welsh poetry and early history in Parc Dinefwr, the inspiration of Olmsted to design Central Park New York from his visit to Birkenhead Park, or Sissinghurst garden’s connection with Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson.  These historic associations are as deep as those with buildings and deserve equal recognition.

 

 

May 2019