William Goldring (May 1854 – 26 February 1919) was a
landscape architect, and
naturalist. Goldring arrived in
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1875) where he was in charge of the Herbaceous Department at the world-famous
botanical garden. He served as the Assistant Editor of The Garden (1879), and the Editor of Woods and Forests (1883-1886). He was also President of the Kew Guild, The Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew,
London,
England (1913). Goldring's work included many private houses, hospitals, asylums and
public parks in England,
Wales,
India, and the
United States of America. He is responsible for work on nearly 700 different garden landscape projects in England alone.[1]
Goldring was born at
West Dean, near
Chichester. He died near Kew after suffering from asthma and bronchial problems.[2]
A linked sequence of public parks, gardens, and green spaces created along the valley of
Porter Brook between 1855 and 1938 following a devastating
moorland conflagration. Great fires occurred during the summer of 1868 setting the woods ablaze. Goldring's re-creation comprised
Endcliffe Park 38.3 acres (15.5 hectares), Bingham Park 60.54 acres (24.50 hectares), Whiteley Woods 28.42 acres (11.50 hectares), Forge Dam 23.48 acres (9.50 hectares), and Porter Clough 17.8 acres (7.2 hectares). Porter Brook are all part of the
Sheffield Round Walk, completed shortly after
World War II.
Endcliffe Park was laid out by Goldring in 1885 when Endcliffe Wood was purchased by
City of Sheffield. Many features in naturally occurring
Millstone Grit, such as stepping-stones across Porter Brook, were incorporated and in 1887 a Jubilee Monument was erected commemorating the Golden Jubilee of
Victoria of the United Kingdom. In 1891 he added a tennis pavilion and lodge in the fashionable
Art Nouveau style located at the park entrance,
Hunter's Bar. Further extensions to Endcliffe Park were made in 1888 and 1929.
The Laxmi Vilas Palace, an extravagant building of the Indo-Saracenic school, was designed by architect, Major Charles Mant and built by the Maharaja of Baroda
Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III (1863-1939) in 1890 at a cost of £180,000. It is reputed to have been the largest private dwelling built in the nineteenth century and four times the size of
Buckingham Palace. The interior is reminiscent of a large European
country house and the Palace "compound" of over 700 acres (280 hectares) was landscaped by William Goldring.