Grosvenor Park
Grosvenor Park is a public park in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England (grid reference SJ412663). It consists of 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land overlooking the River Dee. It is regarded as one of the finest and most complete examples of Victorian parks in the North West of England, if not nationally.On 22 August 2013 the designation of the park was raised from Grade II in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens to Grade II*.
History
The park as seen from the air
The land, which formerly consisted of fields, was given to the city by Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster. The Marquess also paid for the design of the park by Edward Kemp. It was laid out in 1865–66 and opened with great celebration in November 1867 although the Marquess was not able to attend. Grosvenor Park has recently undergone a £3.6 million restoration as part of the 'Parks for People' programme. The park received a £2.4 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with additional funding from WREN and Cheshire West and Chester Council. The programme aimed to repair and restore some of the original features. A new building named the Activity Zone was built to serve local community activities and the Lodge was refurbished and converted for use as a cafe. The park was reopened in July 2014 by Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster and descendant of the original benefactor.
Grosvenor Park Lodge
Designed by local architect John Douglas, this was originally the park keeper's lodge. The building has been designated by Historic England as a Grade II listed building. For a time it housed the city council's parks & gardens office. After the 2014 refurbishment of the park, it reopened as The Lodge Cafe. The lodge, together with some of the other structures in the park, are among Douglas's first recorded commissions by the Grosvenor family, and the first known example of his use of black-and-white architecture. The lodge is in two storeys, the lower storey being built in red sandstone and the upper storey being timber-framed with plaster panels. The roofs are of red-brown tiles. On the upper storey are eight carvings which represent William the Conqueror and the seven Norman Earls of Chester.
