Sefton Park is a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

in south

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England. The park is in a conservation district of the same name, It is the largest public park in Liverpool and the

Liverpool City Region The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority area in North West England. It has six council areas: the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside (Liverpool, Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Knowsley, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, St H ...

. Suburbs neighbouring the park include

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Liverpool, Canning, Dingle, Liverpool, Dingle, and Edge Hill, Merseyside, Edge Hill ...

, Aigburth, Mossley Hill,

Wavertree Wavertree is a district and suburb of Liverpool, in the county of Merseyside, England. It is a Ward (country subdivision), ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 14,772. Located to ...

and St Michael's Hamlet. The park is located roughly within the historic bounds of the large area of the former Royal Park, Toxteth Park. The park is in area and is designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

at Grade I in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

History

The site of the park was once within the boundaries of the Royal Deer Park of

which became "disparked" in 1591. The land eventually came under the Earl of Sefton's control. As

rapidly grew, green fields and woodland of Toxteth Park became narrow streets and courts packed by tiny uninhabitable houses where air was stagnant, little or no sanitation and running water was from one tap in the middle of the court. At the same time there was demand for large aristocratic mansions in the South of Liverpool. In 1862 the

Borough Council A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Engineer recommended a site for this development. The Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act 1864 permitted corporations to borrow sums of money of up to half a million pounds to be repaid over thirty years. This allowed steps to be taken towards land purchase for Sefton Park. In 1867 the Council purchased of land of the park's development for £250,000 from the Earl of Sefton. Sefton Park is one of the largest in the "ribbon of Parks" originally envisaged in 1850s by the Liverpool Improvement Committee and which came eventually to include Newsham and Stanley Parks. Even though it was recognised by politicians that clean, fresh open spaces were now regarded as necessity there was an outcry from the public that £250,000 was extravagant and wasteful. The park's layout was funded by selling plots of land for housing on the perimeter of neighbouring Princes Park. Soon after, a European competition was launched to design a grand park. 29 entries were received and the competition was won by a French

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

Édouard André with work on the design also undertaken by Liverpool architect Lewis Hornblower. The park was opened on 20 May 1872 by Prince Arthur who dedicated it "for the health and enjoyment of the townspeople". Sefton Park map1947

The Park design is based on circular, oval and marginal footpaths, framing green spaces, with two natural watercourses flowing into a man-made lake. Hornblower's designs for the park lodges and entrances were elaborate structures, and included follies, shelters and boathouses. The parkland itself included a deer park and strong water theme with pools, waterfalls and stepping stones. Exclusive villas and ornamentation of the park reflected the city's grandeur during the mid Victorian period when Liverpool was the second city of the Empire. The perimeter road's outer edge is lined with Victorian buildings constructed to around 1890, and

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

houses. Additional park development continued with the construction of the iron bridge in 1873. The park had a gallops which led to it being nicknamed "the Hyde Park of the North" but was always referred to by locals as "The Jockey Sands". A major park improvement programme was undertaken in 1983, for the

International Garden Festival The International Garden Festival was a National Garden Festival, garden festival recognised by the AIPH, International Association of Horticultural producers (AIPH) and the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which was held in Liver ...

, and 30 years later (2013) Sefton Park was granted the prestigious

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

for high standards.

Sporting uses

Sefton Park Cricket Club Sefton Park Cricket Club in south Liverpool, England was formed as Sefton Cricket Club in 1860. As well as being used for Sefton's senior, women's and junior teams' home fixtures, the club hosts Lancashire age group and junior sides, Liverpool C ...

moved their ground to the park in 1876 and

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English cricketer who is widely considered one of the sport's all-time greatest players. Always known by his initials as "WG", his first-class career spanned a record-equalling 4 ...

was amongst the three

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

players who made up a "South of England" who won there in 1877. The park also has

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s, a

bowling green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

, and a popular jogging circuit. It is also used every November to hold the European Cross Country Championships trial races for the British team, and makes up part of the route of various annual road races including the Liverpool Half Marathon, Rock & Roll Marathon and Spring 10k.

Entertainment uses

The park has also been a site for

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmo ...

's summer pops season, Africa Oyé and the

Moscow State Circus The title Moscow State Circus is used for a variety of circuses. Most commonly, it refers to one of the two circus buildings in Moscow, the "Circus Nikulin" (the old circus, featuring animal acts) and the "Bolshoi Circus" (the new circus, featu ...

. Bands have also played at the park in the '80s such as Echo and the Bunnymen. In 2025 it was announced by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and the Liverpool City Regional Authority that the park would be the location for the music festival, BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2025. 1867 design of Sefton Park with marks

Restoration

In 2005 the park received provisional approval for a major £5 million Heritage Lottery funded renovation project which involves the refurbishment and improvement of many of the park's features. The work began in June 2007 was expected to be completed in summer 2009. This work was very controversial with some regular users of the park as it included destroying trees and breeding sites of birds. The work led to the formation of the "Friends of Sefton Park" campaigns.

Notable features of the park

Palm House

This is a Grade II* three-tier dome conservatory

palm house Palm house is a term sometimes used for large and high heated display greenhouses that specialise in growing arecaceae, palms and other tropical and subtropical plants. In Victorian era, Victorian Britain, several ornate glass and iron palm house ...

designed and built by MacKenzie and Moncur of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

which opened in 1896. Liverpool millionaire Henry Yates Thompson (the great nephew of the founder of Princes Park) gifted £10,000 to the city to fund the construction. It was designed in the tradition of

Joseph Paxton Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener, architect, engineer and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Member of Parliament. He is best known for designing the Crystal Palace, which was built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde ...

's glass houses and was stocked originally with a rich collection of exotic plants. During the

Liverpool Blitz The Liverpool Blitz was the The Blitz, heavy and sustained bombing of the British city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the Nazi Germany, German ''Luftwaffe''. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area o ...

of May 1941 a bomb fell nearby and shattered the glass. It was reglazed in 1950 at a cost of £6,163 with costs covered by War Restoration funds. A period of decline and deterioration culminated in its closure in the 1980s on grounds of safety. In June 1992, a public meeting was held highlighting the dereliction and calling for restoration. A petition was presented to the City Council by what had become the "Save the Palm House" campaign. A public fund raising campaign was established, with a "sponsor a pane" programme generating over £35,000. This led directly to the conversion of Save the Palm House into a registered charity (Friends of Sefton Park Palm House). Among the supporters of the project were Liverpool jazz singer

George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973, he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an ...

and actress

Margi Clarke Margi Clarke (born 25 May 1954) is an English actress and radio and television presenter. She had a leading role in the film '' Letter to Brezhnev'' (1985), a low-budget film which had an international release. Later, Clarke played Jackie Dob ...

; Melly described it as "the magical palace of my childhood" and "a fairy castle". The Palm House was partially repaired and reopened in 1993. It was fully restored at a cost of £3.5 million with Heritage Lottery and European funding and reopened in September 2001. It is now both a popular visitor attraction offering free and paid-for public entertainment and is venue for hire. The eight 'corners' of the Palm House are marked by statues by the French sculptor Léon-Joseph Chavalliaud. These include explorers

Captain Cook Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He complet ...

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

, navigators

Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator (; 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a Flemish people, Flemish geographer, cosmographer and Cartography, cartographer. He is most renowned for creating the Mercator 1569 world map, 1569 world map based on a new Mercator pr ...

and

Henry the Navigator Princy Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu ( Portuguese: ''Infante Dom Henrique''; 4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (), was a Portuguese prince and a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese ...

, botanists and explorers

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

and John Parkinson and landscape architect Andre le Notre. Inside the Palm House are two sculptures by Benjamin Edward Spence "Highland Mary" and "The Angel's Whisper". File:Columbus Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147384).jpg , alt=Statue of Christopher Columbus , Christopher Columbus File:Captain Cook Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147390).jpg , alt=Statue of Captain James Cook , Captain James Cook File:Mercator Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147389).jpg , alt=Statue of Gerardus Mercator , Gerardus Mercator File:Prince Henry The Navigator Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147383).jpg , alt=Statue of Henry The Navigator , Henry the Navigator File:Darwin Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147386).jpg , alt=Statue of Charles Darwin , Charles Darwin File:Linnaeus Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147387).jpg , alt=Statue of Carl Linnaeus , Carl Linnaeus File:John Parkinson Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147380).jpg , alt=Statue of John Parkinson , John Parkinson File:Andre Le Notre Statue, Sefton Park, Liverpool (geograph 3147391).jpg , alt=Statue of Andre le Notre , André le Nôtre The grounds of the Palm House feature a statue of

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...

which was one of the last works by the British sculptor Sir George Frampton. This is Grade II listed and is a replica of a similar statue given as a gift for the visiting public to

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Pa ...

by author J.M. Barrie. The statue was donated to the park by George Audley in 1928 and was unveiled in the presence of Barrie. It originally sat in Sefton Park but was damaged in the 1990s. It was restored at Liverpool's Conservation Centre, and returned to the more secure location of the Palm House's grounds in December 2005.

Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and Anteros statue

This is Grade II listed and situated in the centre of the Park next to the café and former site of the aviary. The fountain, made from bronze and aluminium, was unveiled in 1932 and is a replica of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain created by Sir

Alfred Gilbert Sir Alfred Gilbert (12 August 18544 November 1934) was an English sculpture, sculptor. He was born in London and studied sculpture under Joseph Boehm, Matthew Noble, Édouard Lantéri and Pierre-Jules Cavelier. His first work of importance wa ...

in London's

Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...

. It was restored in 2008 with a new aluminium Anteros statueLike the original in Piccadilly, the statue is commonly but incorrectly referred to as "Eros".
''Eros statue returns to city park''

, 17 September 2008) replacing the original which was residing in Liverpool's Conservation Centre before the centre closed to the public.

Obelisk

The principal entrance to the Park, opposite Lodge Lane, is the location of the Samuel Smith memorial. This is in the form of a tall granite

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

, which stands at the head of an avenue leading to the park’s central plaza, where the Shaftesbury fountain and central cafe stand, and where the aviary once stood. The obelisk is mounted on a plinth with two (now non-functioning)

drinking fountain A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or water bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and s ...

s either side (N&S); above each is the legend "''Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give them shall never thirst''", taken from St. John's Gospel. Above the fountains on each side of the plinth are four bronze plaques representing Smith's life and work. The front plaque (W) bears an image of Samuel Smith in high relief; and the two sides (N&S) have images of Christian charity, and the rear (E) plaque bears an inscription detailing his biography, and underneath "''Them that honour Me, I will honour''". The plaque also states that the monument was raised by public subscription.to Samuel Smith

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

; Retrieved 3 October 2020 The obelisk is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Other statues and facilities

The park features a Gothic

and several prominent statues including a memorial to William Rathbone V by Sir Thomas Brock unveiled in 1887. There is a bandstand, popular since the Victorian era, which is said to be the inspiration for

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' song Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. An iron bridge was opened in 1873 which spans the Fairy Glen. There is a café in the centre of the park called the Aviary Cafe and a pirate themed children's play area opened in 2009.

Review field

Barrage balloons and anti-aircraft guns were established on the Review Field in the Second World War.

Field of Hope

The Field of Hope is an area in the south-east quarter of the park. It was planted with thousands of daffodil bulbs through a charitable planting programme and continues to bloom each year. In 1990 the

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

centre in Woolton, which had received a donation of daffodils from Geests to be used for fundraising, had the idea of planting a "Field of Hope" in order to inspire cancer sufferers and carers. In co-operation with the city council, a million daffodils were planted across the south-east corner of the park.Field of Hope
at wooltonvillagetripod.com; retrieved 3 October 2020 This has led to similar fields being established in other parts of the city, including Stanley Park, Clarke Gardens, and Woolton Village.

Former features of the park

Aviary

aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flig ...

was introduced to the park in 1901 and was home to many exotic birds. After falling into disuse in the 1980s, the old cages were removed during the restoration project and replaced with a new curved viewing point overlooking new outside planting.

The Concert

The park also boasted a small open-air theatre – "The Concert" – near the café which featured singers, magicians and talent contests to entertain local children during the summer holidays. This was removed in the 1970s.

Boating lake

The lake was a popular venue for boating until the 1970s, with a jetty and boat hire facilities. The lake was totally emptied in 2007 for the extensive renovation work and all of the fish (which included specimen weights of carp, tench, roach, pike and golden orf) were caught with large nets and sent to various locations across the UK. Following its restoration, the lake was refilled in 2010.

Others

There was a small pirate ship located in one of the lakes until the early 1990s when it was removed due to falling into disrepair. Ringo Starr mentions the park in his song "''In Liverpool''" on his album "

Ringo 2012 ''Ringo 2012'' is the seventeenth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ringo Starr, released on 30 January 2012 in the United Kingdom and 31 January 2012 in the United States. It was released on CD, LP and digitally by Hip-O Records and U ...

Footnotes

References

External links

Sefton Park
Liverpool City Council
Sefton Park Palm House
official website

National Museums Liverpool

Royden History {{Coord, 53, 23, N, 2, 56, W, region:GB_type:landmark_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Parks and commons in Liverpool Urban public parks 1867 establishments in England Tourist attractions in Liverpool Grade I listed parks and gardens in Merseyside