Park Life; Peter Elson Reports on How the City's Ugly Duckling Is Turning Back into a Swan

Byline: Peter Elson

THE demise of Princes Park can be traced back to an alleged incident, which, even by Liverpool's high standards, is of immense comic proportions.

A maintenance crew in a rowing boat on the park's lake dredged up a large chain. An irresistible urge caused them to pull manfully on this chain, which they discovered was attached to - a large plug.

Glug, glug, glug.

The lake's lowering level seems to relate to Princes Park's fortunes. Now the lake is almost back at its optimum level. For once, the lake's island is actually surrounded by water.

This is largely due to the selfless efforts of the Friends of Princes Park, a 50-strong group of volunteers, consisting mainly of local residents, dedicated to the park's restoration.

However, they readily admit the lake is far from secure. All last year, Liverpool's parks department were sorting out another leak caused by a collapsed sewer.

This is a marked improvement from the days when the city council simply wanted to forget the park, leaving the boathouse, Japanese ornamental bridge, bowling green and pavilion to be destroyed by vandals.

Princes Park deserves better. Although it is not Liverpool's biggest or most famous, it can claim to be its oldest public park. Thanks to the generosity of the merchant, Richard Vaughan Yates, and his descendants, it became a public asset to the area.

Town planning students from as far as the US come to visit because it is the first park designed by Joseph Paxton who later went on to design …

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Publication information: Article title: Park Life; Peter Elson Reports on How the City's Ugly Duckling Is Turning Back into a Swan. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Daily Post (Liverpool, England). Publication date: February 4, 2006. Page number: 1. © 2009 MGN Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.

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