Corner of Yorkshire: East Park which opened the day of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee
The creation of municipal public spaces became fashionable in the mid-19th century, the earliest example being the Derby Arboretum funded by a private benefactor. As the movement spread, Halifax saw the People’s Park open in 1857, London its Battersea Park in 1858, and Pearson Park was established in North Hull two years later.
Over the next couple of decades the city expanded eastwards, creating the need for a large public space for the area’s growing population, and East Park was eventually opened on 21st June 1887, the day of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The site was chosen because it was close to the terminus of a horse-drawn tram route. Initially, it covered around 52 acres between Summergangs Road in the west, James Reckitt Avenue to the north, and one of the city’s main arteries, Holderness Road, on its southern boundary. But after the Edwardian period, it more than doubled in size by taking in a series of old clay pits. The large Ferens boating lake was created on land donated by one of the city’s wealthiest industrialists, Thomas Robinson Ferens.
The park’s most famous feature is the Wicksteed Splash Boat, a water chute installed on a small lake in 1929. Along with the original at Kettering in Northamptonshire, it is one of only two still in operation. A focal point in the park is the area around an ornamental clock (pictured), paid for after four years of local fundraising and erected in 2014. In 2017, a memorial was unveiled to Mick Ronson, the Hull-born guitarist known for his work with David Bowie and Bob Dylan.