Golden Gate Park most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Balboa and Mission Bay Parks in San Diego. In the 1860s, San Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park similar to Central Park, which was then taking shape in New York City. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the Outside Lands, in an unincorporated area west of San Francisco's then-current borders. Conceived ostensibly for recreation, the underlying purpose of the park was housing development and the westward
Park Gate Down the chalk. In the south eastern corner of the reserve is a disused chalk pit and the western and northern area of the reserve borders on Elham Park Wood. To the south of the reserve is an area of land managed under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme which is being reverted from arable land to chalk downland. The dominant chalk grassland community at Park Gate Down is CG4 "Brachypodium pinnatum". However, fine, less vigorous grasses are also common such as sheep's fescue ("Festuca ovina"). The reserve supports a rich flora including many calcicoles such as common milkwort ("Polygala vulgaris"), small scabious