“The Cultivation of Virtue” - Music and Entertainment in Public Parks from the 1830s onwards, with a focus on the Victorian and Edwardian Bandstand

Rabbitts, Paul Anthony (2024) “The Cultivation of Virtue” - Music and Entertainment in Public Parks from the 1830s onwards, with a focus on the Victorian and Edwardian Bandstand. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Over the last thirty-five years, my knowledge of public parks and historic landscapes has evolved, eventually because of a chosen career in this field, working initially as a landscape architect, and then moving into a career of managing and researching public parks to regenerate these important spaces. My BA (Hons) degree in Geography led to a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture. Initial restorations undertaken for which I was responsible for, included parks in Carlisle where my unpublished report based on original research led to a lottery funded restoration of the 1923 ‘Pleasureland’ called Hammonds Pond. Whilst at Middlesbrough Council, I led the heritage restoration of the Grade II listed Victorian Albert Park, which opened in 1868, again funded by the lottery. This also led to my detailed research and a study of the history of parks in Middlesbrough, including Stewart Park, the birthplace of Captain Cook, and grounds of the lost Marton Hall, and a further successful lottery funded project. My time in landscape consultancy also included detailed heritage research into the late-Victorian Wilton Lodge Park in Hawick leading to the eventual successful lottery funded restoration of this Borders public park. My move to Watford, Hertfordshire, led to one of the finest park restorations in England and the £7.2 million transformation of the Grade II listed Cassiobury Park, the former grounds of Cassiobury House, the estate of the long lost Earls of Essex. I published my findings after years of research in the archives of Watford Borough Council and Watford Museum, called Cassiobury, the Ancient Seat of the Earls of Essex published in 2017. It is the only complete study on this award winning park and has been referenced in recent work and research by Hertfordshire Gardens Trust into the work of Humphry Repton.

My knowledge of the history of public parks grew during this period, leading to several publications, and in particular my interest grew in the icon of public parks, the bandstand, often the centerpiece of music and entertainment within these historic spaces. My desire to research further the role of bandstands stemmed from investigating the history of the lost structure in Albert Park, Middlesbrough, and my wish to see this replaced as part of the lottery funded project. My first publication on this subject, Bandstands was published in 2011, followed by a number of books on the history of the Royal Parks of London, with further books on bandstands in 2014 (Bandstands of Britain), 2017 (British Bandstands) and culminating in 2018 (Bandstands – Pavilions for Music, Entertainment and Leisure). The latter is a comprehensive history of music, entertainment and leisure in public parks. No publication or study had covered this subject and, as will be identified and discussed in this commentary, this has largely been ignored by most historians of leisure and landscape/garden historians.

Additional publications on historic parks followed, including studies of park architecture, park designers, and the architect Decimus Burton. Finally, my research and studies led to the updating and expansion of one of the most important works on public parks: People’s Parks – The Design and Development of Victorian Parks in Britain by Hazel Conway. This led to a significant new publication entitled People’s Parks - The Design and Development of Public Parks in Britain with joint authorship between the late Hazel Conway and myself. This will be expanded upon within this commentary but after discussions with Historic England as well as an appropriate academic publisher, it was decided that Conway’s book should be expanded, rather than a new book commenced. The rationale was simple. Conway’s earlier book was iconic and it was felt that her work from 1991 should be built upon with new case studies integrated and expanded by myself to cover the period from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day. Copyright was therefore obtained from her daughter, Zara Conway as well as from Cambridge University Press with eventual publication by John Hudson Publishing in association with academic publisher Boydell and Brewer.

Throughout this period of research and study, from 2011 to 2024, it was apparent that there had been almost no consideration of the influence of music and the wider scope of entertainment in the evolution of public parks, with historians of leisure failing to acknowledge the impact and influence on park design or recreation. Why was this? References would be made by a number of academics to the effect of parks in general and the idea of ‘rational recreation’ is frequently referenced. However, there was a lack of any study or research into specifically what became known as ‘band houses’, ‘orchestra stands’ or the bandstand, which was to become the central focus of music and entertainment in public parks. This is despite their existence in the earliest eighteenth-century pleasure gardens and eventually into the mid-nineteenth century onwards within the growing number of public parks.

This commentary briefly summarises the research findings from the submitted publications, and then considers a number of issues related to this study, in particular the methodology of research undertaken; the benefit of this research to wider society and what, if any, has been the measurable impact on public parks; and how has this work contributed to the current debate on music and entertainment and future of people’s parks. This includes citing several of my earliest publications on bandstands to the major publication Bandstands – Pavilions for Music, Entertainment and Leisure which is the culmination of many years of work and is the only body of work that covers this subject area. This commentary will also identify how this work
has contributed significantly to the wider knowledge of bandstands, the role of music, and reexamines and re-asserts the importance of public parks in ‘cultivating virtue,’ among the labouring classes and its relevance today, particularly in a post Covid-19 world. This body of work also considerably increases our knowledge and understanding of how important music and entertainment was from the early part of the nineteenth century, within the growing movement of ‘People’s Parks’ to the present day, and the challenges faced in the future.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Publication
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	19 Mar 2025 14:05
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2025 14:06
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98806
DOI:

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