Handsworth Park
A few weeks ago members of the Handsworth Park Association, formed in 1994, risked
a sip or two of champagne to celebrate the news that Handsworth Park, for which
they and many others had been campaigning - sometimes vociferously, lately in
quieter but regular consultation with the City Council - had won a substantial
sum of money from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The quiet pleasure was tempered
by the fact that two members of the Association had died before the news was
known. Ray Haddock worked many years in the park and despite a job diminished
by the constraints of Compulsory Competitive Tendering had worked himself literally
into the ground as the surrogate park keeper - a role the city is now keen to
recreate and multiply. Also lost was Danny Peters, in his 40s, who had made Handsworth
Park a personal project and given much energy to the Association, seeking funds
to clean up the park's waterways for the return of boats and wildlife.
Financially the news is very good indeed. The Council announced to the press
on October 2 - having taken the trouble to let us know beforehand - that the
Fund had approved "in principle" a grant of £4.8 million. That wasn't all. The
total package for regeneration would be nearing £7.6m. The bonus for morale
in the council and the reward for councillors' and officers' years of hard work
is immeasurable -especially with so much work yet to be done.
Handsworth Park was founded in the 1880s as a "lung in the city" for the garden-poor
people of a rapidly expanding industrial area. Designed by landscape craftsman
Richard Hartland Vertegans it was fought for by farsighted citizens from all
political parties. For over 50 years it was a jewel in the municipal crown -
used by local and city people and even for international events.
Only in the 1960s did Handsworth Park start its decline. Changing social attitudes
made a day out in the country more attractive than a day in the park. Access
roads were made dangerous by speeding cars. Parents would no longer send their
children to the park to play. Road run-off began to pollute the ponds and kill
the wildlife. A killer blow in the late 70s, the UK government removed council
grants for staff and maintenance and we entered the regime of CCT. The decline
was dramatic. Ironically the very problems of crime and vandalism that arose,
instead of being attributed to loss of municipal responsibility following cuts
in public funding, were blamed on a beleaguered community's depravity. It had
been to address exactly such problems that the park's founders had raised the
money needed to manage a secure space for "all the people of Handsworth".
Now over a century later at last language is being used that would have been
familiar to those who created the Park: the recovery of public space; accessibility
to all; the role of green space in the urban environment - for conservation,
social integration, playing fields, public events, serenity, and the need to
make a sustainable future for the next generation.
The HLF have been astute: initial funding was dependent on city council matched
funding of at least £0.5 million. No more of the HLF millions will be available
until further match funding is found to ensure that what is created is properly
maintained. Revenue and capital must be well balanced and the largest possible
number of stakeholders take responsibility for how the park will evolve.
The lottery money will pay for restoration of footpaths, railings, gates and
lights, monuments, former boathouse, the pavilion, bandstand, lakes, trees and
shrubberies; but the rest of the money must come from other sources to pay for
the creation and upkeep of play areas, multi-sports areas, CCTV. All these must
be provided equally to men, women, girls and boys across Handsworth and the city.
Also must be provided the services for stewardship of the park: rangers, police,
local wardens; and psychological security in the form of widely shared respect
and understanding for these acres of magically landscaped green space.
The park must be restored as a place that people want to visit. A fine open-air
classroom, teaching children and adults about the environment and the practice
of sustainability. A dramatic tourist site drawing in the church of St.Mary's
where lie the remains of Watt, Murdock and Boulton, visionaries of the Industrial
Revolution. A contemporary location for artistic events to attract the widest
numbers of participants and spectators. It will help turn Handsworth from a site
for forensic study of urban pathology into a place whose multiple communities
write their own stories of how they came to England and made this their special
place. "We must never, never" said one leading political figure speaking of Britain's
urban parks "allow what happened to them in the last years of the 20th century
to happen again." So we ride on a tide of political interest in making cities
- especially our own inner suburbs -back into places where people want to live
instead of blighted estates where many feel trapped. Parks play a key part in
urban regeneration and Handsworth Park reborn is going to play its part in the
regeneration of Handsworth.
Simon Baddeley