Benches

Benches are a long-time fascination of mine. I’m talking about benches for sitting on, the types you find in parks and gardens and other communal green spaces, not the ones for preparing food or making things on or those designed for judges.

A simple stone bench overlooking the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, Peru

A pleasing metal and wood construction, also in Cusco, Peru

Though typically simple structures made of wood and/or stone, benches can also be complex artistic creations made of many other materials, and I’ve already blogged about some of those I’ve found. During the six months I lived in Cheshire, I was a frequent visitor to Tatton Park, which has the most delightful collection of benches within its gardens.   

More comfortable that it might appear, this bench overlooks the house at Dunham Massey, in Cheshire, England

Benches for appreciating the views, overlooking the Devon town of Sidmouth and the English Channel, England

And here in Wales, in Cardiff, I was charmed by Gwen Henney’s nine Beastie Benches and others of her creation, the Rhiannon Seating triology, also crafted of carved bricks, as well as the Nina Edge-designed West Close Square terracotta benches.

From the state of Wisconsin, in the USA, benches to share with sculptures: in the picturesque town of Wittenberg and in Green Bay

Before Google+ was closed down, I was a long-time and very active member of the photographic community on that platform, and one of the themes I enjoyed contributing to was #BenchSaturday. The idea was to post photos of benches that were interesting in themselves or were located in interesting places.

Colourful benches in the vibrant surroundings of the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech, Morocco

A creative Polynesian-themed bench in Auckland's Karangahape Road, New Zealand

The photos I’ve included here are just a few examples from the hundreds I posted on Google+ over the years and, be warned, there will be future blogs on other interesting benches I find. I hope that next time you sit on a bench, you might appreciate better its maker and their skills.

More benches with views: above, on top of the extinct volcanic cone of Mt Richmond and, below, a view over the city centre from another volcano, Mt Eden, both benches in Auckland, New Zealand

Bandstands : Penarth

Penarth is privileged to have two bandstands though one of them isn’t really a bandstand, more of a shelter from the rain or a covered place to sit. Let’s start with that one, which is in Penarth’s Alexandra Park.

This structure was installed in 1994 and actually replaced a wooden shelter that had previously stood in the same position but had been removed sometime in the 1950s.

The new construction is certainly elegant – I like the fine lines of its supporting posts but, unfortunately, it is no substitute for the original bandstand that once stood slightly further down the sloping site. You can see an old postcard of the original bandstand and wooden shelter on the Penarth Dock website here and a couple more old images on the same website here – note the amazing view at that time: it has since been obscured by growing trees and tall beach-side apartment buildings.   

The only real bandstand remaining in Penarth is the Victorian structure, shown above, in Windsor Gardens. Amazingly, it is the original bandstand, which probably explains why it is looking rather shabby these days.

The Penarth Parks website provides little information about this structure, except to quote an extract from the 1903 publication Mate’s Illustrated Penarth (W. Mate & Sons, Bournemouth):

There is a fine band stand, or shelter, and occasionally al fresco concerts are given, and sometimes of an evening the Gardens are gaily illuminated.

So, I looked back through the old Welsh newspapers to try to find more information. I found a reference to a Penarth Local Board meeting, held on 3 April 1894, at which a request for a band stand to be erected on the Promenade, made by the Cardiff Military Band, was considered and rejected. But, obviously, some people thought the idea had merit because I then came across the advertisement (shown at right), in the Barry Docks News of 20 July 1894, just 3½ months later.

The Windsor Gardens bandstand was duly opened on 25 July 1894. Here’s the following day’s rather brief report from the South Wales Daily News:

ILLUMINATION OF THE WINDSOR GARDENS, PENARTH.
GRAND MILITARY CONCERT.
Through the courtesy of Col. H. 0. Fisher, the band of the 2nd Glamorgan Artillery Volunteers, under the able oonductorship of Mr Paul Draper, gave a first-class military concert Wednesday night, in the Penarth Gardens. The occasion was the opening of new band stand, which is octagonal in shape, 20ft. in diameter, copper roofed, and recently erected by Lord Windsor, at a cost of £200. There were quite 1,500 to 1,600 present to witness the fairy-like appearance of the grounds, which were magnificently illuminated by Richardson and Company, Cardiff, with thousands of coloured lamps and Japanese lanterns. It is intended to continue a weekly (Wednesday) series of promenade concerts.

It almost sounds like the illuminations were more newsworthy than the band music, and, indeed, the trend for romantic illuminations continued. This is from the Penarth Chronicle and District Advertiser of 10 August 1895:

A RARE MUSICAL ATTRACTION.
It has been left to private enterprise, in which however, the Estate has made important concessions, to give a fillip to the town's attractions by the series of nightly concerts now taking place in these charmingly situated grounds. To get Penarth to take an interest in herself is almost a Gargantuan undertaking, and it is therefore but a verification of this fact that these concerts have hitherto been but sparsely attended. There is nevertheless a rare musical treat nightly provided, and one has only to go once, to wish to go again. The artistes are of undeniable distinction in the musical world, the proof whereof it is easy and withal pleasant to verify by going to hear them.
On Bank Holiday, the weather unfortunately precluded a large attendance, but on Wednesday the numbers were more gratifying. The Orchestra gave magnificent renditions ... interspersed by solo singing by Miss Kate Hullett, G.S.M., whose classic and soulful rendering of "Kathleen Marvour neen” (amongst others), evoked pleasing applause. This soprano, although unused to al fresco singing, is heard quite 150 yards away and has a beautifully timbred, resonant, rich and mellow voice. The instrumental executants, par excellence, are Master Wm. H. Holden, and Master Chas. Holden, whose unique performances on the violin and cornet, respectively, are worth going a long way to hear.
To heighten the attraction, portions of the gardens are illuminated with fairy lamps, and guaranteed propitious atmospherical conditions, promenaders cannot fail to be charmed by the sense of sound and sight. The former almost goes without saying, and the latter is assured by the marine panorama below of gliding lights and shimmering waters. Such was it on Wednesday at any rate ...
If, then, any sentimental lad or lassie wish to test the veracity of this picture, let them hie themselves thither; and if the staid paterfamilias and his spouse desire to conjure up the courting days of yore let them also thither go – but, remember, Luna must be shining. Failing this fickle luminary one will then be repaid by the stars in the bandstand. Knowing the exclusiveness, the cliqueism and the setism of Penarth, the promoters of these Concerts have wisely determined not to impinge upon these idiosyncrasies and so have charged threepence for admission.

These days the bandstand is rarely used for its original purpose – in fact, such events are so rare as to be newsworthy: here’s a link to an article in the Penarth News of 12 July 2014, reporting on a concert being held ‘after a gap of many years’. It seems such a shame to me that this wonderful old bandstand isn’t better maintained and used – I rather fancy the idea of promenading through gardens illuminated by fairy lamps while listening to magnificent musical renditions.

Bandstands : Cardiff

While researching this piece about Cardiff’s two remaining bandstands, I was amused to uncover this newspaper article, from the Cardiff Times 13 August 1904, in which local councillors were reported to be arguing over where the bands should play:

“Wardism."
The Parks Committee's recommendations that for the next week bands should play only at the Roath Park, Victoria Park, and the Llandaff Fields was vigorously contested. Councillor Roberts urged the claims of Splott, and moved that one of the bands play there instead of at Llandaff Fields; whereas Councillor Kidd declared that if any were made Loudoun-square must be considered. Councillor Chappell said the bands were placed at points on the tramway line which had proved most profitable to the tramways. The sum available for bands was now wasted – exhausted rather, because they had been putting bands where they couldn't get audiences. Councillor Beavan thought that other parts of the town would pay the tramways equally well if they were equally treated. Alderman Mildon, having accused previous speakers of “wardism," proceeded to complain that Grangetown was not catered for in any way. He would not ask for a band for Grange, although they had a bandstand there rotting for want of use. Councillor Courtis: Or want of paint. (Laughter.) Alderman Carey proceeded to champion the claims of the people of Tyndall-street. (Renewed laughter.) Councillor Roberts’s amendment was rejected, and the committee’s recommendation adopted.

Sadly, only two of the locations mentioned in this report still have bandstands, Victoria Park and Grange Park, and, perhaps even more sadly, the Grange Park one is still/again ‘rotting for want of use’ and/or ‘want of paint’. So, let’s start with it ...

According to the Cardiff Parks website, the Grange Park bandstand was Cardiff’s first:

In February 1895 the Council accepted a tender of £100 from the Lion Foundry Co. of Glasgow, for construction of a bandstand. This, the first bandstand to be provided in any of Cardiff's parks, was completed by [the] beginning of June.

The park, then called Grange Gardens, was formally opened on 19 June 1895 and the bandstand hosted its first musical performance that evening. The South Wales Daily News of 20 June 1895 has the story:

The latest addition to the open spaces of Cardiff—that of Grangetown—was formally declared free and open to the public on Wednesday evening, the ceremony being performed by the Deputy-chairman of the Parks Committee of the Cardiff Corporation (Councillor Joseph Ramsdale, J.P.). The members of the committee with their friends assembled at the Town Hall, from whence they were conveyed in carriages to Grangetown ... The borough engineer presented Councillor Ramsdale with a key, with which he unlocked the gates. The party afterwards proceeded to the band stand, where congratulatory speeches were delivered. The Mayor proposed a vote of thanks to Lord Windsor and Lord Bute for the gift of the ground, and Alderman Jacobs having seconded, and support coming from Councillor Jenkins and Councillor Johnson, the vote was carried amidst much cheering ... [more speeches and cheering] and the party then returned to the Town Hall, leaving Mr D. A. Burn's Brass Band to render a popular programme of music.

Though you could be forgiven for thinking that the bandstand we see today is the original, it is, in fact, an exact replica (the original plans were uncovered in a library in Glasgow) that was installed in 2000. The Cardiff Parks website reports that

The original bandstand is thought to have been removed during the Second World War, though the Parks Committee received a report in 1937 on the condition of the Grange Gardens bandstand and the question of repair or demolition was left to the Chairman and the Chief Officer. Aerial photographs from 1942 appear to show an empty space where the bandstand stood.
From the summer of 1943 music for open air dancing was provided using gramophone records and loud speakers. Also in 1943 the Parks Committee decided that the Roath Park bandstand, which had fallen into disuse, should be removed and re-erected in Grange Gardens. There is no evidence that this was carried out.

Let’s hail a carriage and move on to Victoria Park's bandstand ...

It took Cardiff Council several years first to agree to and then to achieve the transformation of ‘the swampy ground known as Ely Common’ (Weekly Mail, 19 June 1897) to the 45-acre park initially referred to as Canton Park but later christened Victoria in honour of the queen’s jubilee. It was officially opened on 16 June 1897, with its magnificent bandstand already in place. The construction of a bandstand had been already been agreed by the Parks Committee, as reported by the Evening Express, 14 April 1897:

CANTON PARK. A BAND-STAND TO BE ERECTED AT ONCE. The Parks Committee showed on Wednesday [14 April] that they are not devoting their whole attention to the magnificent park at Roath. The claims of Canton, which have been persistently advocated by Messrs. Gerhold, Ward, and Illtyd Thomas, have been recognised, and the parks committee on Wednesday decided to erect a band-stand at Canton Park at a cost of £212.

Here’s an extract from the Weekly Mail’s report, of 19 June 1897, about the new park’s opening:

DESCRIPTION OF THE PARK.

The Victoria Park ... is irregular in shape, and for this reason perhaps lends itself to a lay-out which is both ingenious and attractive. The main paths are 30ft. wide, and from these branch out others, of smaller width, to the band stand, the lake, and other portions of the park. Entering from Cowbridge-road, one becomes at once interested in a very fine series of flower beds, with paths intersecting in the form of a wheel. A little further on is an ornamental lake of about an acre in extent, which is supplied with water from the corporation mains by two very handsome fountains and is approached from about a dozen different directions. Further north is a band stand, surrounded by a gravel footpath 30 ft wide, from which other paths radiate and communicate with the main roads. There are also a couple of ornamental shelters and a drinking fountain. A large number of shrubs and flowers have been planted, and already give proof that they like their new situation. About two acres are set apart at the northern end of the park as a playground .... It is satisfactory to find that the work (except the iron railings and band-stand) has been carried out by corporation employees, under the borough engineer (Mr. W. Harpur) and Mr. Pettigrew (superintendent gardener).

The wonderful Cardiff Parks website says that

As in other Cardiff parks, there were regular band performances in Victoria Park on summer evenings. These were organised and paid for by the Council Parks Committee, which allocated £500 for musical entertainments in the City's parks. In January 1913 Pettigrew reported that the season for band performances was from May to August and the majority took place in Roath Park, with performances in other parks only during June and July, and on specific days of the week. In Victoria Park this was every Thursday evening. Pettigrew also stated that "at Roath Park only the very best class of (local) bands are engaged; whereas at Splott and Victoria Parks a few second rate bands are sandwiched in between those of a better class."

As time passed and fashions changed, the Victoria Park bandstand was less used and less well maintained, and it was eventually dismantled and removed some time in the 1950s. Fortunately, for the park’s centenary in 1997, the replica we see today was commissioned and installed. Let’s hope the city’s future councillors will value and treasure these wonderful nods to a bygone age of leisure and entertainment - both structures could certainly do with a little timely maintenance!

Bandstands

I’ve only twice seen live bands actually playing in bandstands but both times have been memorable experiences and I find the structures themselves quite fascinating.

Whole books have been written about the history of bandstands (and you can read a brief extract from one of those on the author’s website here) so I won’t go into too much detail. Suffice to say that the first British bandstands were constructed in the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens in London’s South Kensington in 1861. In the essay 'Garden of the Royal Horticultural Society', in Survey of London: Volume 38, South Kensington Museums Area, (ed. F H W Sheppard, London, 1975, which can be accessed at British History Online), the author reports that

[engineer and architect Francis] Fowke also designed the two 'band houses' of iron and zinc-covered wood which The Builder thought 'light and tasteful' ... The ironwork was by J. Potter and Company. One bandstand survives on Clapham Common where it was re-erected in 1890.

However, it seems that last statement about the bandstand having been moved to Clapham Common is incorrect, as Hazel Conway has since discovered that the two original bandstands went to other locations (and have since been demolished) and the Clapham Common bandstand is, in fact, an 1890 replica. 

As urban living conditions deteriorated during the industrial revolution and the music of brass bands became more popular, town councils began building bandstands, and other leisure facilities, in the public parks that were then being developed, so that over-worked, stressed factory workers had somewhere to escape their grim, over-crowded living conditions and enjoy a little rest and relaxation while listening to sometimes soothing, occasionally stirring brass band music.

I don’t have any photos of the earlier bandstands but this one in Victoria Park, Widnes, though actually a modern replica of the original, is typical of many that were constructed in the late Victorian era. It was one of the park’s major features when it opened in 1900, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Bandstands were also popular in New Zealand, my home country, though for some unknown reason we call them band rotundas. According to the Digital NZ website, ‘popular enthusiasm for brass band music led to over 100 rotundas being built from the 1890s to the 1930s’, and the website has wonderful old photos of some of them.

One that’s featured is the band rotunda in The Domain, a huge park in central Auckland. It was built in 1912 and still hosts occasional concerts during the summer months. (My photos were taken in September and December 2013, when I had returned to live in Auckland for a time.)

Even the humble little town of Ngaruawahia, my home town in New Zealand, has a band rotunda. It sits in a dramatic position, at the confluence of the Waipa and Waikato Rivers, in a park which, in my childhood, was used for fairs and circuses and an annual gathering we called ‘The Regatta’, when the green was filled with carnival attractions, there were Maori canoe races on the adjacent river, and brass bands played stirring tunes from the rotunda (though I don’t remember the bands as much as the sideshows and merry-go-rounds!).

Getting back to what I wrote at the beginning of this post about my memorable experiences of hearing live bandstand performances, the first was on a visit to Chester in July 2014. My friend Sarah and I had tickets to see a performance of Macbeth at the open-air circular theatre in Grosvenor Park (it was fantastic!) so we were spending the day in Chester, walking the Roman walls, exploring the historic city. As the time for the play approached, we decided to walk to the venue along the riverside paths and almost immediately heard the music. Luckily, we had time to grab an icecream from a nearby vendor and sit and enjoy the music, before going on to see the play.

That bandstand was first built, in its lovely riverside setting, in 1913, it’s now a Grade II-listed structure, and it underwent a full restoration in early 2018. It is used extensively throughout the summer months for free concerts by brass and jazz bands, as well as performers of other musical genres.

My second memorable bandstand experience was in the seaside town of Eastbourne, on England’s south coast, while visiting my friend Jill in August 2014. Eastbourne Bandstand, which bills itself as ‘The Busiest Bandstand on Planet Earth (unless you know better)’, is a unique structure and very different to the other bandstands described here. Built in 1935, its three levels can seat up to 1400 people, and it hosts a huge number and range of musical performances which, like the one we attended, often end literally with a bang – we went to one of their ‘1812 Fireworks and Proms’ concerts, which concluded with an orchestral performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and a spectacular fireworks display. It was truly a night to remember! 

Here in Wales, there are a number of bandstands in the towns and cities near where I live, so I’ll be featuring those in some of my future blogs.