South Liverpool: Sefton Park and Princes Park

	Sefton Park Sefton Park is Liverpool's largest park and very fine it is too. It is laid out like natural countryside rather than formal gardens, though with boulevards, curving drives and an artificial lake. It originally formed part of the 2300 acre (930 ha) Royal Deer Park of Toxteth, King John's hunting domain, which was already in existence in 1207, when Liverpool received its first charter. 375 acres (152 ha) were purchased by the city council from Lord Sefton in 1867 for a reputed price of £250,000. The design of the park is the work of Lewis Hornblower, a Liverpool architect who worked on the gates, bridges and lodge houses, and Edward André, a highly regarded Parisian landscape architect. The park was opened to the public in 1872. 2009 saw the completion of a £5 million restoration project leaving it more beautiful than ever.
	Daffodils, Sefton Park I wandered lonely as a ... - you know the rest. In early spring a magnificent carpet of daffodils covers a large area at the southern end of Sefton Park. One million bulbs were planted here in 1991 by the Marie Curie Foundation for Cancer Research, which has the daffodil as its logo.
	The Lake, Sefton Park The lake in Sefton Park was formed by the damming of two streams, the Lower Brook and the Upper Brook. This is the northern end of the lake, near the present confluence of the streams.
	Statue of William Rathbone, Sefton Park William Rathbone (1787-1868) was a member of a distinguished Liverpool family who made their fortune in sawmills, cotton, ship building and merchant banking. The family contributed much to public projects, including the provision of public baths and wash houses to try and prevent cholera epidemics. William Rathbone was elected a Liberal councillor for Liverpool in 1835 and Mayor of Liverpool in 1837. He fought for social reform and established corporation schools. He also organised famine relief for Ireland during the Potato Famine of 1846-7. Over 1000 mourners attended his funeral in 1868 and the Sicilian marble statue by John Henry Foley and Thomas Brock was unveiled in 1887. He stands overlooking the confluence of the Lower and Upper Brooks.
	The Lake in Winter, Sefton Park This is the southern end of the lake.
	A Winter Evening at Sefton Park My thanks to Dave Steel for this picture.
	The Northern Entrance and Lodge, Sefton Park The red granite columns of the gateway are sections of much larger ones removed from St. George's Hall in the 1850s to make room for the organ. The lodge of 1874 is on the site of one of King John's mediaeval hunting lodges, the Upper Lodge, from which Lodge Lane, leading away to the north, gets its name.
	The Southern Entrance, Sefton Park
	The Southern Lodge, Sefton Park
	Eros Statue, Sefton Park This bronze and aluminium Eros, designed by Sir Alfred Gilbert, is a second version of the one in London's Picadilly Circus. So many paths meet here that the concept is not inappropriate.
	The North-West Avenue, Sefton Park This is the avenue from the Eros statue to the Samuel Smith Obelisk. The obelisk is a memorial in red granite to the Liverpool cotton broker, MP and philanthropist Samuel Smith (1836-1906). He served as a Liberal Member of Parliament from 1882 to 1885 and from 1886 to 1906.
	Avenue of Elms, Sefton Park This picture has, I suppose, historical or nostalgic interest. I took it in 1978 and it hows the avenue of elm trees then linking the Eros statue to the Samuel Smith Obelisk. As it happens, Sefton Park has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the first places in Britain to be subjected to the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease. These elm trees are no longer there, though their replacements are maturing nicely.
	The Bandstand, Sefton Park Bandstands first emerged in public parks in Victorian times as open spaces and music were conceived as ways for people to 'improve' themselves. There is a rumour that this one may have inspired the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
	The Lower Brook, Sefton Park The Lower Brook once originated near the Botanic Gardens on Edge Lane. It was one of a number of streams that used to flow across southern Liverpool, most traces of which have disappeared as a result of building expansion and the associated drainage. A pleasant stretch remains in Sefton Park, where it flows into the lake.
	The Fountain in Winter, Sefton Park
	The Grotto, Sefton Park This obviously artificial grotto used to be the spot where the Lower Brook cascaded into Sefton Park. The romantically inclined Victorians had a thing about recreating wild places on their doorsteps.
	The Upper Brook, Sefton Park The Upper Brook used to rise near Wavertree Playground and flow past the present Brook House pub on Smithdown Road and on through what is now the lake in Greenbank Park. It now emerges in The Dell in Sefton Park and flows through the park to the lake. Before the damming took place to form the lake, the Lower and Upper Brooks merged to form the River Jordan (named by a local Puritan community), which flowed in cascades down to Otterspool.
	The Dell, Sefton Park This lovely little valley is the entry point of the Upper Brook into Sefton Park.
	The Fairy Glen, Sefton Park A delightful feature, with rocks, waterfalls and a pool. Add a nymph or two and it would be the perfect classical idyll. It flows out into the Upper Brook in The Dell.
	The Iron Bridge, Sefton Park The Iron Bridge crosses The Dell near the Fairy Glen.
	The Dell in Winter, Sefton Park
	One of the Driveways, Sefton Park
	The Palm House, Sefton Park Completed in 1896 at a cost of £10,000 donated by Liverpool millionaire Henry Yates Thompson. The superb restoration of the palm house, including 3,710 panes of glass, was completed in 2001 at a cost of £2.5 million. It houses a collection of exotic plants and there are statues of various luminaries around the outside. The palm house now provides a first class venue for a range of events such as concerts and coffee and croissant mornings.
	The Palm House, Sefton Park A view from the east.
	The Palm House in Winter, Sefton Park
	The Palm House Interior, Sefton Park A little taste of the tropics in a Liverpool suburb.
	Family Outing at the Palm House, Sefton Park My thanks to Dave Steel for this picture.
	Peter Pan Statue, Sefton Park The restored Peter Pan statue has at last been reinstated in Sefton Park alongside the Palm House, although it may be resited at its original setting alongside the watercourse. The bronze figure stands on a tree trunk incorporating a variety of animals. Sir George Frampton (1860-1928) was commissioned by James Barrie, author of Peter Pan, to create the original statue as a gift to the public. It was introduced into Kensington Gardens (London) in 1912. The Sefton Park replica, commissioned by George Audley of Southport as a gift to the children of Liverpool, was installed in 1928. There are further replicas in Brussels, Newfoundland, Toronto, New Jersey and Perth (Western Australia).
	Statue of Christopher Columbus at the Palm House, Sefton Park Columbus scans the horizon for a glimpse of the Mersey. He is known locally as the Maker of Liverpool because the early growth of the city was so dependent upon his discovery of America. A Thanksgiving Day ceremony used to be held here in his honour, attended by the American Ambassador and American soldiers from the base at Burtonwood. Other statues here of individuals linked to Liverpool's historical dependence on maritime exploration and mapping are Cook (discoverer of Australia and New Zealand and explorer of much of the Pacific), Mercator (cartographer) and Henry the Navigator (Portuguese prince and patron of explorers, especially of Madeira, the Azores and West Africa).
	Statue of Charles Darwin at the Palm House, Sefton Park Darwin (I don't think he needs any introduction) ponders the meaning of life in Sefton Park. Other statues here of figures associated with gardening and botany are le Notre (designer of the gardens at Versailles and St. James Park, London), Linnaeus (Swedish botanist and taxonomist) and John Parkinson (apothecary to King James I).
	Statue of Gerardus Mercator at the Palm House, Sefton Park The Flemish cartographer and mathematical instrument maker became famous for his shape-preserving projection of the globe that allowed compass courses to be marked as straight lines. He also coined the word atlas.
	Pine Trees near the Palm House, Sefton Park
	Pines in winter, Sefton Park
	A Victorian Mansion, Sefton Park
	Prince's Park Gates Prince's Park, named in honour of the newborn Edward Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in 1841, was the first public park in Liverpool. It was the brainchild of Richard Vaughan Yates, a local iron merchant and philanthropist. He paid the Earl of Sefton a staggering œ50,000 for the land and employed Joseph Paxton and James Pennethorne in 1842 to do the landscaping, taking inspiration from Regent's Park in Lindon. Paxton went on to design the much grander Birkenhead Park, for which he gained an international reputation. According to the Liverpool Mercury in 1844, it was 'delightful to see the labouring man, his wife and children in the evenings enjoying themselves in the pleasure grounds', although it was not until 1918 that it passed into the hands of the City Council and became open to all.
Prince's Park in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) The Prince's Park, in Toxteth (the public park of Liverpool), is a great ornament to the district, for which the inhabitants are indebted to the philanthropy of Richard Vaughan Yates, Esq. That gentleman, desirous of forming a park that should be adapted both as a site for mansions for the wealthier inhabitants, and as a place of recreation for the public, purchased a tract of land for the purpose from the Earl of Sefton. About one-half of the hundred acres so obtained was set apart for ornament, and the remainder, around it, was laid out in building lots for villas and terraces, in such a way as that one house should not intercept the view of another; the sites commanding beautiful prospects of the Mersey, with the Cheshire shore and the hills beyond, and having the park with its rising plantations as a foreground. The terraces and villas, also, according to the plan, are to have gardens, adding to the beauty of the whole. A large piece of water has been formed in the centre, with two ornamental islands in it. On one side of this is a spacious garden, reserved, for the most part, for the inhabitants of the houses in the park, who have thus the advantage of retired walks. It is elegantly arranged, containing a choice collection of shrubs, pines, and scarce plants, each labelled with its name, so as to assist visiters in the study of botany; and the garden is on a sufficiently large scale to allow of considerable beds being occupied with the same flower. Privileged persons may also sail upon the lake, boats being provided on the spot. The ground on the other side of the water, which, with the drives, is open to the public, commands a view of the garden, and is disposed with equal taste. The Park [...] was completed in about three years, and the total cost was about £73,000, the price of the land being about two-thirds of the amount [...].
	The Lake, Princes Park
	Dickinson's Dingle, Prince's Park Dickinson's Dingle was the name of a valley and the associated brook that once flowed through it (not to be confused with The Dingle just to the north) until it was dammed in 1842 to form the lake in Princes Park. The course of the valley is still clear where it leaves the lake (on the left of this picture) and is obvious in the marked dips near the end of Ullet Road and in Aigburth Road near the Liverpool Theatre School. It then passed to the west of St. Michael's church to enter the Mersey about half a mile (1 km) east of the Britannia Inn, near Riverside Drive, where the waterfront was then located. A drawing of 1820 shows a truly idyllic scene, worthy of John Constable's attention, downstream from St.Michael's in an area then known as Cain's Fields, with the newly-built church tower reflected in the peaceful, tree-lined waters.
	Prince's Park