Following on yesterday’s blog and focusing on the ‘entertainment’ section of Pickering Park (see yesterday’s picture).
The Park’s bandstand was planned to be ‘sunken’ and the part of the Park where this once was is somewhat sunken today. I think the intention was to be amphitheatre-like with terraced seating around the central performance area, five access paths and a tree-lining to the whole area. At one point it was minuted (s.p.b.s) that complaints had been made that the bands were ‘inaudible’ and in other park bandstands the floor on which the musicians played was usually raised above the level of the surrounding audience. But it must have been an interesting feature.
The now disused aviary is today below where the gardeners are shown on the map as having had two ‘nurseries’ with potting shed between. The original aviary (see map extract) was where a toilet block now stands (maybe an adaptation of the original building). As I have written about before, keeping ‘exotic birds’ was a popular hobby back then and Park’s aviaries were generally stocked by those donated by bird fanciers. The Parks and Burial Committee always minuted their thanks for such donations.
Backing onto the aviary was the aquarium (see map extract), this the only one in Hull’s four Parks at the time. During the Great War Hull’s Parks had to function with a reduced workforce and it was minuted in 1919 that owing to this the glass aquariums had cracked and leaked.
West of the nurseries was a fascinating section, still there today, where rock-pools, boulders and uneven ground were created as an area for children to explore, Pickering Park’s ‘Kyber Pass’! Cleverly positioned benches allow the visitor to absorb the pleasures of the watery glen.
This area of the Park was/is well supplied with surfaced footpaths.
Today the ‘bowling green’ has been replaced with a walk-through shrubbery and sensory garden maintained by members of the Friends of Pickering Park.