Edited by Fay Blanchard, Gerrie van Noord and Anthony Spira

The Lie of the Land charts how the British landscape has been radically transformed by changes in free time and leisure activities since the recreations of the aristocracy were enjoyed on the rolling hills of their private estates. The exhibition's ambition is to capture a visionary spirit of grand designs tempered by the realities of political expediency, across a time-period of four centuries. In part, tracing a line between Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's aristocratic gardens at Stowe (1740s) and the social, urban experiment 'new town' of neighbouring Milton Keynes (1960s), the exhibition and this accompanying publication tease out the aspirations that underpin our built environments. The Lie of the Land examines the modernisation of leisure propelled by industrialisation: in particular during the Victorian era, with its social reforms aiming to improve urban living conditions, which is represented by the Parks and Garden City Movements.