Mowbray Park

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Mowbray Park
Type	Municipal (City of Sunderland)
Location	Sunderland
Coordinates	54°54′7″N, 1°22′47″W
Opened	1857
Operated by	City of Sunderland
Status	Open all year

Mowbray Park is a municipal park in the centre of Sunderland, North East England located a few hundred yards from the busy throughfares of Holmeside and Fawcett Street and bordered by Borough Road to the North, Burdon Road and the Sunderland Civic Centre to the West, Toward Road to the East and Park Road to the North.

1 History
2 Statues, Memorials & Art
3 A potted history of the park
4 Events
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

Mowbray Park is one of the oldest municipal parks in the North East.^[1] It was opened in 1857 in response to a demand for more open spaces in the town.^[2] The land was purchased from the Mowbray family, and named after them in recognition. The park was extended in 1866 to include a lake and a terrace, and in 1879 the Winter Gardens, museum and art gallery were added along the Borough Road side.

The Second World War had a huge impact on the park. It was hit with numerous German bombs, the iron structures - most notably the Winter Gardens, a cast iron bridge, and the bandstand - were taken away to be melted down for weapons, and the open spaces were converted into vegetable patches.

Following the war, the park fell into neglect. The civic centre was built on the west portion of the park. The area became known for anti-social and absuive behaviour, and was considered generally unsafe. In August 1993, over £13,000 worth of damage was caused, and a survey by the Sunderland Echo showed that locals were too scared to use the park.^[3]

Following a public campaign, in 1994 work began on restoring the park to its Victorian glory, funded by a £4 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund,^[1] described as: "The jewel in the crown of the city centre regeneration".^[4] The Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens were rebuilt, the lake was restored, the bandstand was rebuilt, and the park was re-shaped and adorned with numerous statues. A large adventure play area for children was built. The park officially re-opened in 2000.

In the first year following re-opening, the park received over 800,000 visitors, making it the most visited attraction outside of London.^[4]

[edit] Statues, Memorials & Art

Mowbray Park was the original site of the memorial for the Victoria Hall disaster of 1883 in which 183 children were trampled to death in the Victoria Hall, which overlooked Mowbray Park. The marble statue - of a mother holding her dead child - was later moved to a cemetery, but in 2002 it was restored and moved back to the park.

Bandstand

The Havelock memorial, constructed in 1861, is located to the south of the park and commemorates Sir Henry Havelock, a celebrated military general born in Sunderland. Either side of the statue are cannons, replicas of those captured from the Russians during the Crimean war. The originals were melted down for metal during the second world war.

Jack Crawford, born in Sunderland, was honoured for bravery when he climbed the mast of his ship - the HMS Venerable - during the Battle of Camperdown to nail the British flag back up. Although he died a pauper (he was also the second victim of the cholera epidemic in Britain), a memorial was erected for him in 1890.

Sunderland has strong links with author Lewis Carroll - it is believed Carroll wrote, among other things, the poem The Walrus and the Carpenter in the town. To commemorate the link, a number of statues are located around the park - most notably a walrus sculpture in the lake.

Roughly in the centre of the park, stands a statue of John Candlish, who was mayor and later MP for Sunderland from 1866-74.

[edit] A potted history of the park

The roots of Mowbray Park date back to the 1830s, when a health inspector recommended building a ‘leafy area’ in the town after Sunderland recorded the first cholera epidemic in 1831. A grant of £750 was provided by the Government to buy a £2,000 plot of land from the Mowbray family for a new park.

Work on Mowbray Park – known as The People’s Park – began in the mid-1850s, with a former limestone quarry being landscaped. Topsoil was placed over the spoil heaps and original footpaths were gravelled over – leading to the hummocks and winding paths of today.

The day of the park’s opening – May 12, 1857 – saw shops close early as thousands of people flocked to attend the ceremony. An extension to Mowbray Park, from the railway cutting to Borough Road, was opened on July 11, 1866.

Work on the nearby museum began in 1877. Former United States President, Ulysses Simpson Grant, was invited to the foundation stone ceremony. His name can still be seen on the stone to this day. The museum, as well as a library and Winter Gardens – designed as a triple attraction – were opened in 1879. Plans for a civic building on part of the park sparked wide-spread objections around this time and were eventually thrown out.

Park statues include Jack Crawford, John Candlish, Major General Sir Henry Havelock and a tribute to the Victoria Hall Disaster victims. Hitler’s bombs destroyed the Winter Gardens in 1941, along with the nearby Victoria Hall. A heritage grant of £4million saw work start on a project to restore the park to its former glory in 1994. The new Winter Gardens and revamped museum were opened in July 2001. More than 300,000 people visited in the first three months.