A historical analysis of Corporation Park’s landscape since 1857

Abstract

The following document is a study to investigate what influences govern public
usage of a Victorian municipal urban park, namely Corporation Park in Blackburn,
Lancashire, England.
This research was carried out over one year between May of 2009 and April 2010.
The main focus of the research was to uncover if the physical geography of
Corporation Park has an impact on the people who use the park, or if it is a more
complex issue with a more humanistic answer to the equation. Is it that society has
changed and an urban park no longer has a place in modern urbanism, or is that a
reputation of a park influences the population of an area.
To answer these questions various techniques were applied. To gain an
understanding of the contextual arguments behind the usage of an urban park the
author reviewed previous works, this allowed for a greater understanding of what
questions needed to be asked. To research the issue an interview and questionnaire
were created to pole the people of the park.
This research led the author to conclude that each aspect in itself influenced usage
of the park and that it cannot be totally concluded what aspect influences the most,
but that it is a blending of urban and human geography that has an impact on the
park.