Thomas Hayton Mawson (s.p.b.) published his autobiography in 1927 (by which time he was suffering from Parkinsons Disease), this cataloguing his 50 year career as a garden, park and town designer. The book was entitled The Life and Work of an English Landscape Architect. This self-taught gardener was, in 1923, to become the first President of […]

The picture above shows the ‘Tea House’ at Belle Vue Park, Newport, S. Wales. It reflects the Park’s designer’s fondness for rustic structures in public parks, the designer being Thomas Hayton Mawson, 1861-1933. Mawson became a well-respected park designer (despite having left school in Lancashire at the age of 12) 50 years after Loudon (s.p.b.s)

The picture above shows part of the ornamental pond located in Pearson Park, Hull with the Victorian conservatory in the background, closed now for a long time and without the sub tropical plants it once housed although, hopefully, it may be restored to its former glory if the park authorities can achieve funding for an up-grading

The bandstand (s.p.b.) at People’s Park, Grimsby stands to the right off the above picture. Travis Elborough in his book A Walk in the Park (s.p.b.s) is of the opinion that ‘the common park bandstand’ was inspired by ‘the raised-platform kiosks seen in Turkey and across the Ottoman Empire’, these being encountered by British diplomats and

Another feature of late-Victorian parks was the bandstand. Despite having a similarity with market crosses such as the one in Beverley Saturday Market Place purpose-built bandstands have a relatively short history, the first, allegedly, built in the Royal Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington in 1861. By the late 19th century, however, bandstands were an almost indispensable

In Hull park-keeper’s/cemetery-man’s houses survive at Pearson Park (see above), West Park (beside Anlaby Road, just into the Park near the base of the Road’s flyover), East Park (near the main gate off Holderness Road), Pickering Park (near the main gate beside Hessle High Road), Western Cemetery (near the main entrance off Chanterlands Avenue), Hedon Road