New Postcard added to website

Public Gardens – Postmarked 18th June 1940.

Westbrooke House and the grounds were acquired by the then Alton Urban District Council (AUDC) in 1931. The plan was to convert the house and grounds to create council offices, fire station, public lavatories, a museum, a car park, and public gardens. The funding for the entire project was not available leading to some changes, luckily for us the public gardens were included in the amended plans.

However, it appears funds were indeed very tight, with Boy Scouts drafted in to help, several newspapers reported this, including this article from the 26th November 1932:

‘SCOUTS HELP A COUNCIL. Boy Scouts are helping Alton Urban Council to clear 4 acres of ground to be used as a park next summer. After the Council had bought Westbrooke House, with its grounds’

The grounds were completed and opened to the public at 10am on Saturday the 19th of May 1934. The park has hosted many events over the years, one of the earliest would have been King George V’s Silver Jubilee Celebrations in May 1935, which included an open-air service in the morning for all denominations as well as community dancing in the evening. The original Bandstand was built to commemorate the Jubilee.

An event organised by the Chamber of Commerce, proved to be just too popular! On Saturday 12th August 1939, people were invited to dance in the public gardens, the event was repeated on Wednesday the 17th, which saw 180 dancers take part, unfortunately leading to the turf being damaged. The dances were suspended the following day.

The gardens have hosted many different events since they first opened, in recent years these have included:

Alton Lions Party in the Park, The Pancake Race, Fun Fridays in the School Summer Holidays, Picnics in the Park, Alton Food Festival, The Big Dig, Alton Repair Café, Live on the Lawn, Last Night of the Proms and they have featured in at least one music video.