Author(s): Christopher Beanland

Travel Pictorials

A visually stunning and beautifully written celebration of park life around the world.

The pandemic brought into sharp relief what city dwellers already realised: parks are an absolutely essential part of modern life. From the author who brought you Lido, here are 50 of the world's greatest parks - but not just a list of the examples we already know. Yes, we'll tell you about those storied greats such as Central Park in New York and Phoenix Park in Dublin, but we'll also take you to the Philippines, to Australia, to provincial Britain and around the world to show you the most historic and the most interesting, the newest and most cutting-edge that mix the best of nature and architecture. We'll explore what you can find there, who goes there, why they are important, and how parks respond to their environments, including ones over a road, on old rail lines or in Berlin's former airport. Examples include:

• Freeway Park, Seattle, USA: a hugely cool brutalist park over a motorway


• Ibirupeira Park, Sao Paulo, Brazil: this one contains amazing galleries and theatres


• Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, UK: mountains within a city


• Adelaide's parks, Australia: unique in that the entire city centre is enclosed byparks

and many, many more. This gloriously illustrated book is a fascinating record of the world's most interesting and innovative parks, and the people who use them - you'll want to visit them all.