A park is any of a number of geographic features.

Hunting parks and the parks of country houses

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Originally, the term referred to an area maintained as open space where residences, industry and farming were not allowed, often originally so that nobility might have a place to hunt. These were known for instance, as deer parks (deer being originally a term meaning any wild animal). Many country houses in Great Britain and Ireland still have parks of this sort, which since the 18th century have often been carefully landscaped for aesthetic effect. They are usually a mixture of open grassland with scattered trees and sections of woodland, and are often enclosed by a high wall. The area immediately around the house is the garden. In some cases this will also feature sweeping lawns and scattered trees; the basic difference between a country house's park and its garden is that the park is grazed by animals, but they are excluded from the garden.

Public parks

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Today, the primary meaning, based on the original meaning, is an area of open space provided for recreational uses. Parks in this sense are usually owned and provided by the government. Park uses are often divided into two categories: active and passive recreation. Active recreation is that which require intensive development and often involves cooperative or team activity, including playgrounds and ball fields. Passive recreation is that which emphasizes the open-space aspect of a park and which involves a low level of development, including picnic areas and trails.

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BBC News | UK | World Edition

Patients to get sight-saving drug
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:07:29 -0000
All patients in England suffering from a disease which causes blindness will get access to a sight-saving drug after all.
Taylor Wimpey hit by massive loss
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:16:44 -0000
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey reports a £1.54bn loss for the past six months after having to reduce the value of assets.
Man convicted over Shia flogging
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:49:42 -0000
A man is convicted of child cruelty after forcing two boys to flog themselves during a Shia Muslim ceremony.
Call for housing market 'rescue'
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:52:15 -0000
A mortgage rescue scheme and councils buying unused land feature in a Liberal Democrat plan to revive the housing market.
UK urges tough response to Russia
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:52:32 -0000
The UK foreign secretary calls for "hard-headed engagement" with Russia in response to its actions in Georgia.
UK population 'will be top in EU'
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:20:28 -0000
The UK population is set to become the largest in the European Union, according to a report.

The Economist: Britain

Valuing new drugs:
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:15 -0000
What lies behind a tiff over drug pricingONE of Labour’s early health-care reforms was to set up a body to work out how cost-effective new drugs are—and whether they are therefore worthwhile for the publicly financed NHS. Although the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has now been going for nine years, it is only recently that it has run into the sort of bitter controversy that always seemed likely to dog such a body. Stung by recent criticisms, Sir Michael Rawlins, NICE’s chairman, retaliated in an interview published in the Observer on August 17th. Why, he asked, did NICE always get the blame for saying no, when its supposedly stingy decisions were caused by the high prices set by drug companies? Why was no one questioning their fat profits, or their chief executives’ big bonuses? ...
Bagehot:
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:15 -0000
The prime minister vanished; the leader of the opposition materialised in Tbilisi. Britain had a bad warHOLIDAYS in the BlackBerry era can be divided into two categories: “soft” (where the vacationer stays in radar contact and continues to exercise his thumbs) and “hard” (when he staves off divorce by switching everything off). David Cameron’s holiday was plainly in the soft category: one moment canoodling on a Cornish beach, the leader of the Conservative Party reappeared in Tbilisi, glad-handing Georgia’s embattled president. Meanwhile Gordon Brown, a prime minister famously, even worryingly, averse to relaxation, mostly sat out the Caucasian crisis in his holiday redoubt. Neither has distinguished himself. “I don’t like abroad,” King George V once remarked, “I’ve been there.” Mr Brown is often said to have a similar attitude to, and aptitude for, foreign relations. He gets worked up about globalisation and poverty; but he evinces little interest in the sort of tough diplomacy and realpolitik that Russia’s gangsterism calls for. He apparently talked about Georgia with George Bush, Ban Ki-moon and the rest by phone, but let others do the face-to-face peace-mongering. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, was also inconspicuous at first, though he eventually made it to Tbilisi on August 19th, denouncing Russia’s “adventurism and aggression”. ...
Commercial property:
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:15 -0000
The downturn in the capital’s office market will intensifyTWO years ago the City of London was planning a makeover as developers dreamt up new skyscrapers with quirky names to rival the “Gherkin”. But one by one the projects are being put on ice. The “Walkie-talkie” will spare the wavelengths for the time being. The “Cheese-grater” will leave the “Gherkin” unaccompanied for a while now that British Land, London’s biggest developer, has put the plan back a year.The jitters are overdue. Commercial-property prices are dropping fast. After rising by an average of 10% a year in 2004 and 2005 and then by 17% in 2006, prices may now have fallen by as much as 20% from their peak. The total return on property (rental income together with the change in property prices) touched a record low of minus 16% in the year to July according to IPD, a data provider. ...
Boris Johnson:
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:15 -0000
If the capital is a Tory test-bed, the early results are mixedON AUGUST 24th the world’s eyes will be on Boris Johnson, as he collects the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony in Beijing to mark the handover to the London games in 2012. But there are other reasons to be interested in London’s mayor, a flamboyant figure with an engaging manner who likes cycling to work. Mr Johnson’s new administration in London offers a preview—of sorts—of a future Conservative government.The early signs—Mr Johnson was elected in May, beating the Labour incumbent, Ken Livingstone—have been mixed. On August 19th Tim Parker, a businessman whom Mr Johnson had appointed first deputy mayor, resigned. The pair had agreed that the job of chairing Transport for London, which runs the capital’s buses and the Tube, should go to the mayor rather than Mr Parker, as originally intended. Shorn of that role, Mr Parker did not have much to stick around for, although he will continue advising the mayor. ...
Breaking up BAA:
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:15 -0000
Dismembering BAA should make it possible to develop a second hub airport for the capital and its regionAFTER years of being shamed by ever shabbier and more overcrowded airports, Britain is at last getting around to doing the right thing. On August 20th the Competition Commission, which investigates whether markets are working properly, released the damning findings of a 17-month study into the country’s airports. The report envisages the dismembering of BAA, the country’s dominant airports operator, as well as other proposals that amount to a wholesale rewrite of the government’s cherished aviation policy.The commission blamed long delays, overcrowding and a shortage of capacity that has long bedevilled Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, on a flawed regulatory regime, poor policy and, most important of all, BAA’s ownership of the three main London airports—Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. It plans to force BAA to sell two of the three as well as another airport in Scotland. ...
The Olympics:
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:15 -0000
Why Britain’s athletes have done so wellEVERY four years in summer, the British prepare for their team to be gallant losers in the Olympics. But this August has brought winner upon winner. As The Economist went to press, the British team stood in third place in the medals table with 17 golds, behind only China and America, the most since 1908 when Britain hosted the games and fielded a third of the competitors, including all of them in some events. With some exceptions, such as Rebecca Adlington’s two golds in the pool, Britain’s medals were concentrated in three “sitting-down” sports: cycling, sailing and rowing. The achievements of the cyclists, winning eight golds, four silvers and two bronzes, were especially notable; Chris Hoy (shown in the picture) scored a golden hat-trick. Their success offers some clues to why Britain has staged such a comeback. ...

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