Peel Park

Peel Park in Salford is considered to be the first public park created for the recreation and enjoyment of the general public, together with (and opened just before) Phillips Park and Queens Park in Manchester. It was not restricted in terms of who could go there - unlike the Royal Parks in London at the time, and other parks which were landed estates. Opened in 1846, it preceded Birkenhead Park, the world's first public park funded by public subscription which opened in 1847 (and which provided the model for New York's Central Park). The three Manchester/Salford parks benefitted from funding from Sir Robert Peel (the prime minister), the liberal MP for Manchester Mark Phillips, and others.

The entrance at the Crescent was very grand, with two big arched structures and fine walls and railings. The biggest stone gate was demolished in the late 1930's, many of the fine sculptures were sold off in the 1950's, and with the expansion of Salford Technical College (which became the University) the gardens and landscaping surrounding Salford Museum and Art Gallery disappeared. By the 1990's no-one would know that Peel Park, painted on a few occasions by LS Lowry and sitting by the River Irwell,  still existed, behind the built frontage of the University and SMAG. But it does.

A £1.6m project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund is remodelling the Park to take it back to its 1890's layout - as far as that is possible. And on the Crescent two structures identify where the big gates once stood, hoping to lead the curious back into the park. In a sense they are an abstract representation of what used to be there.