Sydney Gardens in
Bath is one of six UK public parks and gardens to be rejuvenated with
£13.8million National Lottery funding.
In need of urgent
repairs, the Grade II registered Sydney Gardens - one of the UK’s only
surviving Georgian Pleasure Gardens and local park of novelist Jane Austen -
will have a new lease of life thanks to an investment of £2,742,300 National
Lottery money.
They were designed
for entertainment and wellbeing in the late 18th century and had a keen visitor
in Jane Austen. Just before she moved within view of them in 1801, she wrote:
“It would be very pleasant to be near Sydney Gardens! We might go to the Labyrinth
every day.”
Alongside a jaunt
through the labyrinth, a visit to a pleasure garden was a time to mix and
socialise with minimal supervision, and maybe even meet a
potential partner.
Since Jane Austen’s
day the park has fallen into decline. But soon, thanks to the grant awarded
jointly by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund, today’s visitors
will be able to enjoy a rejuvenated 21st-century pleasure gardens.
They will be able to
make use of a new café, play areas for all ages, a changing places facility
(accessible changing rooms and toilets) and community spaces, alongside the
soon to be restored Grade II listed Loggia, Minerva’s Temple, Edwardian toilets
and grade II* listed canal footbridges.
New areas of garden
with wild flowers and planting for pollinating insects will be introduced and
areas of the park currently closed to the public will be reopened. Four tennis
courts will be refurbished and a new labyrinth-in-grass will be included for modern
day Jane Austens.
Sydney Gardens is
one of six parks receiving National Lottery money totalling £13.8million,
reinvigorating them as vital community spaces by restoring historic features
and planting; creating new facilities including play areas, cafes and toilets;
and improving habitats for wildlife.
The Heritage Lottery
Fund’s Chief Executive Ros Kerslake said, on behalf of the Heritage Lottery
Fund and Big Lottery Fund: “The health and wellbeing benefits of local green
spaces were well known in Jane Austen’s time and remain true today.
"They are home
to some of the country’s most cherished heritage and provide fantastic
opportunities for enterprise and community activities. Over £950million of
National Lottery money has been invested in regenerating public parks and urban
green spaces so far and they remain a priority into the future.”
The six
parks are:
- South Cliff Gardens
in Scarborough’s South Bay - £4.66m
- Castle Park in
Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire - £1.94m
- Sydney Gardens in
Bath - £2.74m
- Fairhaven Lake and
Gardens on the Fylde coast, Lancashire £1.47m
- Ellington Park in
Ramsgate, Kent - £1.64m
- Stevens Park in
Dudley - £1.4m
