First opened to the public in 1845, London’s Victoria Park is the city’s first designed Public Park, created by act of Parliament before Birkenhead in Liverpool and shaped throughout its history by local people and their desire for a better society., It is one of the largest local authority managed parks in London, visited by over 12 million people a year and its status as the first designed public park in the city influenced the wider parks movement, giving it a strong national importance.The vision was to:
- Enhance the significant heritage of Victoria Park
- Promote and reinforce the unique identity and strategic importance of the park in the context of a constantly changing East End
- Communicate and celebrate the stories associated with this place
- Draw inspiration from people connected with the park – both past and present – to guide proposals
- Provide an infrastructure fit for the 21st century user
- Look to solutions, both inside and outside the park, to enhance access on all levels, from physical to intellectual, visual to geographical
