Your city's pocket parks

[xzmattzx]

One of the nice things about cities to me is that here and there there are small parks tucked away in little corners of the city. While big parks are meant to serve the whole city, pocket parks are meant to serve just the people of the neighborhood, or even just the people of the street or block. It provides a semi-private atmosphere for local residents.

What are some of your favorite pocket parks in your city? What makes them special to you? Are they meant to be enclaves or are they meant to be the home of a monument or statue?

[Major Deegan]

There are a few here in Minneapolis, but I'm out of ideas right now. Why don't you set the pace?

[Seattlelife]

ooh very interesting. I'll try to take some photos around BK.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Major Deegan

There are a few here in Minneapolis, but I'm out of ideas right now. Why don't you set the pace?

Fair enough.

Here's one of the nicer pocket parks in Wilmington, in my opinion. This is Soldiers & Sailors Monument Park, located at Delaware Avenue, Broom Street, & 14th Street in the Trolley Square neighborhood of Wilmington.

The monument is the Soldiers & Sailors Monument, and is dedicated to Delaware's Civil War dead. The monument was dedicated in 1871, and the column used for the monument belonged to the Pennsylvania Bank Building in Philadelphia until it was demolished in 1868.

[erbse]

Great topic, I love such tiny yet carefully designed parks! Esp. historical one.
They've got a whole lot more atmosphere than those huge ones.

NYC and London got lots of those small ones, Berlin as well.

I'll go through my collections of these cities to find some stuff

[weauky]

I don't have any...

[dnobsemajdnob]

I know of a few in various cities.

Here is a nice one I've seen in NY:


Here's a nice one in Seattle:

Charlotte, NC

[Slagathor]

Here's one from my home town Middelburg (50k inhabitants) in the Southwestern Netherlands. It's more of a public garden than a park I think. The photo was taken from the street, you have to go down those steps to enter the park.

Spanjaardstraat

[ilan]

I really love the photographs that are here. Thank you people. It is a pity that there is not more interest in Landscaping, parks and little green city pockets in the forums here. I usually only visit the Cape Town section, but this thread was a lovely find.

[Beholder]

Maybe you like these four as wel...

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

One of the nice things about cities to me is that here and there there are small parks tucked away in little corners of the city. ...
It provides a semi-private atmosphere for local residents.

One side of the Palacegarden in The Hague is fenced, they other sides arre behind rows of buildings. So it is hidden
and (apparently) parents don't feel the need to hold their children's hands, while they're in the middle of a big (480k+) town.
image hosted on flickr

Source: roel1943

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

What makes them special to you? Are they meant to be enclaves or are they meant to be the home of a monument or statue?

They name says it all: it's the garden of Noordeinde Palace. Heads of state used to live there, and it's still the 'office' of our queen.
image hosted on flickr

Source: Pieter Musterd

Mostly local residents can be found here during sunny days.
image hosted on flickr

Source: illustir

Also the Royal stables [^] and the Royal archive [\/] can be seen from this park.
image hosted on flickr

Source: Akbar Simonse

[Major Deegan]

Wonderful photos and background stories, everyone! Keep them coming

[rajagiri1]

nice and interesting websites.



swineflu

[Major Deegan]

Paley Park

53rd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues
New York, NY

image hosted on flickr

by doorsixteen

image hosted on flickr
by doorsixteen

image hosted on flickr

by randem

A small vest pocket park in midtown Manhattan, the park was developed (and every detail considered) by the person who paid for it, William Paley, former Chairman of CBS. Mr. Paley was involved in all aspects of planning the park from its conception to the selection of just the right hot dog (which is still served at a reasonable price).

It is an extremely successful public space. For one, it is located directly on the street so that people are attracted to look in and enter. It has good, reasonably priced food, as well as moveable chairs and tables that let people be comfortable and have some control over where they sit. A waterfall provides a dramatic focal point and a reason to enter the park; its noise blocks out the sounds of the city and creates a sense of quiet and privacy. There's adequate shade in the summer from the trees, though they allow a beautiful dappled light to pass through their leaves.

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

by f.trainer

image hosted on flickr

by mello yello

[.Adam]

Postmans Park - City of London






Tucked away behind the City Square Mile is Postmans park, a lovely quiet pocket park to escape from the City. What makes PP so interesting is the memorial to people who took their own lives to save someone elses, its a beautiful square and well worth a visit.

[dmarney]

postmans park looks so nice

[Manila-X]

HK has several. Here is one of them

Harcourt Park, Admiralty

[hkskyline]

Some of mine from New York City :









A few more of the real pocket parks in Hong Kong - the really small ones somehow wedged between small city blocks!

[claclin]

Usaquen Foundational Park
Carrera 6 & 7 between 119 & 118 streets, Bogota, Colombia
image hosted on flickr


Before the city absorved it, Usaquen was a little town located in the
Bogota´s Savannah and an-hour away from the downton by car;
here's the foundational square where in colonial times there were
street markets and farmers' meetings for country business while the
years passed the park became into a great place to go to walk or dinner
in the restaurants around it.

image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr


The bogotan citizens don't want to lose the old costumes of the region,
so, nowadays street markets are organized in the adyacent corners and
sundays there's 'Mercados de Pulgas' where the people market antiquities
and relics

image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr

[LFellipe]

Originally Posted by Urbano Prudente

Presidente Prudente - Brazil (200,000 ppl)

I live in a city in countryside São Paulo
The city is the "capital of western São Paulo" and is the biggest city ina region of 1,000,000 inhabitants

I'll show a park near the campus of University of the State of São Paulo

Parque do Povo

[LaSaraghina]

Alexandre de Gusmão Square, located behind Paulista Avenue, São Paulo city.A quite and peaceful square just behind one of the most important and croud avenues of this city.

http://br.olhares.com/praca_alexandr...oto642254.html