Mowbray Park

Mowbray Park
The bandstand in Mowbray Park
Type	Municipal
Location	Sunderland, England
Coordinates	54°54′7″N 1°22′47″W / 54.90194°N 1.37972°W / 54.90194; -1.37972
Created	1857
Operated by	Sunderland City Council
Status	Open all year

Mowbray Park is a municipal park in the centre of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, located a few hundred yards from the busy thoroughfares of Holmeside and Fawcett Street and bordered by Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens to the north, Burdon Road to the west, Toward Road to the east and Park Road to the south. The park was voted best in Britain in 2008.

Mowbray Park is one of the oldest municipal parks in North East England.

The roots of Mowbray Park date back to the 1830s, when a health inspector recommended building a leafy area in the town after Sunderland recorded the first cholera epidemic in 1831. A grant of £750 was provided by the Government to buy a £2,000 plot of land from the Mowbray family for a new park.

Work on Mowbray Park – then known as The People's Park – began in the mid-1850s, incorporating a former limestone quarry set within what was known as Building Hill. It appears that spoil heaps were shaped and mounded to create distinctive paths amongst steep sided hummocks. The effect was to afford the Victorian user plenty of opportunity to perambulate within a relatively small green area.

The park was opened by John Candlish, Lord Mayor MP of Sunderland on 21 May 1857.

On the day of the park's opening on 12 May 1857, shops closed early as thousands of people flocked to attend the ceremony. An extension to Mowbray Park, from the railway cutting to Borough Road, was opened on 11 July 1866.

It was opened in 1857 in response to a demand for more open spaces in the town. The land was purchased from the Mowbray family, and named after them in recognition. The park was extended in 1866 to include a lake and a terrace, and in 1879 the Winter Gardens, museum and art gallery were added along the Borough Road side.

The Second World War affected the park; It was hit with numerous German bombs, the iron structures – most notably the Winter Gardens, a cast iron bridge, and the bandstand – were taken away to be melted down for weapons, and the open spaces were converted into vegetable patches.