A visually stunning and beautifully written celebration of park life around the world.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 bizarre and brilliant brutalist park over a motorway. Ibirapuera Park, São 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 by parks.and many, many more. Illustrated with glorious photographs throughout, this 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.

Christopher Beanland is a journalist, comedy writer and author who specialises in architecture and travel writing. He is the author of Unbuilt: Radical Visions of a Future that Never Arrived and Lido: A dip into outdoor swimming pools: the history, design and people behind them. He writes regularly for the Guardian, Independent and The Telegraph and is the creator of Park Date a podcast where he interviews celebrity guests in a park. Christopher lives in London.

Introduction 6

UK and Ireland 18

Europe 54

Americas 98

Asia and Africa 130

Australasia 170

Index 204