Southwark Park - Bandstand View
**** IT’S NOT IN OR AROUND THE TREE STUMP WHICH IS FREQUENTED BY DOGS FOR USE AS A W.C.! ****
It’s near the stump.
OK so, the cache title is a bit of a stretch of the imagination but the bandstand is wonderful.
The original bandstand in the Park was erected in 1884 and made of wood, but was replaced by a more finely designed metal bandstand that had been designed by Francis Fowke. It was one of a pair manufactured for the Royal Horticultural Society gardens in South Kensington and when the gardens closed, the London County Council purchased them. One was installed in Southwark Park, the other in Peckham Rye Park. The current bandstand was erected as part of the refurbishment of the park funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund in the late 1990s. The design was based on the bandstand on Clapham Common which in turn had been based on the bandstands in Southwark Park and Peckham Rye Park, and many concerts and events are held there during the summer months.
Southwark Park is the oldest municipal park in the Borough of Southwark. It was created for the people of Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Deptford where warrens of new housing and industrial premises allowed increasingly little light to penetrate through the thick, polluted air. The Southwark Park Act was passed in 1864 that enabled the formation of the park.
****PLEASE NOTE THE PARK IS CLOSED DURING HOURS OF DARKNESS****