King’s Gardens Community News
October 2013 The restoration of King’s Gardens in Southport is well underway and if you take a visit to the gardens you can’t fail to see the changes taking place. The Friends of King’s Gardens have been recording the restoration through facebook (Friends of Kings Gardens Southport) and on twitter (@kingsgardenssp), so if you enjoy social networking why not follow them! There are still plenty of community activities going on, not least the planting of the Community Garden, so why not get involved. For further information please contact kathryn.ward@sefton.gov.uk or friendsofkingsgardens@gmail.com or telephone Sefton Council on 0151 934 2421.
The Venetian bridge The Venetian Bridge has been closed for some time now but lots of progress has been made.
allowed for new decking to be laid but also for steel reinforcements to be installed for the balustrading, and supports for the refurbished lighting columns.
The woodwork was removed for renovation or replacement. This
40% of the balustrading was in a good enough condition that it could be repaired and re-used.
Lamp Posts All the lamp posts had to be removed from site to be refurbished. They are now back, primed and ready to be installed and painted. You’ll see them appearing around the park over the coming weeks.
Shelters The shelters that were dismantled and removed for refurbishment earlier this year are now being put back. The roof on this one has yet to go on but the traditional colour scheme is looking great.
Posts and Railings Posts and railings have been gritblasted in situ. The removal of many coats of paint means that the Grit blasted posts awaiting painting Southport Crest and Lancashire Rose are now visible. The motto on the Southport Crest, “salus populi”, means “the welfare of the people”. The posts and railings will be painted black.
Planting
Playground
There was lots of planting activity at the park during September, with lots of schools and community groups getting involved.
Cafeteria The Marine Cafe is being enlarged and although it will retain its original facade it will have a modern interior. The external seating area is being enlarged too.
The playground equipment has been delivered and is being installed. It looks like it’s going to be fun!
Watch out for ..... ..... the new water feature. The old ornate fountain is being replaced with a much simpler feature. The new fountain will have 14 jets all aimed at each other around a circular paved area, with the water running to the centre of the circle for recycling.
Meet the Team
From left: Kristian Dawson, Andy Vickers (Site Manager), Jamie Howarth, Stephen Ashton, Bill Skillings, Robert Parker, Lee Millington, Andy McKenzie, Ben Henshall, and Paul Cross.
A special thanks
Roy Smith (left) and David Daltry are joiners working on the Venetian Bridge. They have been so enthusiastic about this project that they have been keeping their own photographic record.
Ronan Barnett has recently joined the team. He finished studying at Southport College this summer and now works as Assistant to the Site Manager.
We’d like to say thank you to the Friends of Kings Gardens and Southport Yesteryear (search for Southport Yesteryear on facebook) for the use of their photos in this publication. They both have really interesting facebook pages - make sure you take a look.
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