*click for larger
I’ve never seen this view before! Many thanks to Paul Doleman for sending me this rare photo of the former bandstand in Meols Parade Gardens. I never knew that those shelters existed – did you? Having said that, if you take a look at the ground in the Parade Gardens you can see what I presume are what’s left of the original pillars. I wonder if the main brick wall facing Deneshey Road is all that’s left of these shelters?
The bandstand was there in the fifties and sixties but it was only the walls and pillars, and there was a stage. The Moroccans used to play there, we thought they were great. The round bandstand in the middle of the picture was not there then. I don’t know when the rest was demolished, it must have been in the late seventies.
I think the circular bandstand was once surrounded by gardens, then the shelters were built around it as seen in the photo. The place as I remember it had no central bandstand, but there was a stage on the seaward wall closed off by roller shutters. The three inch shelf left at the front of the stage was used as a “dare” to see who could walk along it and not fall off.
I am not sure the neighbours in the houses over the road liked the concerts, and, sadly, the place was knocked down. I do remember it was quite spooky to walk through it at night (not sure you were supposed to be in there after dark, but the garden fence was not very high!)
Many happy Saturday evenings spent there in the 50’s listening and dancing to the resident Big Band run by ERIC FENTON. Those were the days !
Thanks for this picture of the bandstand, it brings back so many memories. The Saturday night dances in the 50s were well attended, and something my friends and I would look forward to all week. Its hard to imagine now, dancing on a concrete floor, but I dont recall it to be a problem. The other popular dance venue was the Hoylake Parish Hall in market Street, dances were quite different in those days. Ballroom only, and no bar.
I certainly remember the bandstand in the fifties and sixties. It must have been when I was about 5 yrs old I remember going there with friends and sneaking under the canvas when the dance was in full swing and thinking how clever we were to get in unnoticed. Must have been around 1952/3. Then the dances stopped and it seemed to be abandoned, but I think if my memory is correct, where the pillars are, there was some sort of shop that sold ice cream and refreshments in the summer season for quite a few years after.
Mum & Dad used to go to an open air Old Tyme dance there in the 50’s I remember being dragged along but I’ve still got 2 left feet !
I remember that bandstand. Sam Lloyd`s band, a little cafe selling ice cream. I used to stay with my Auntie Vi who lived at 9, Clydesdale Road. – she bought that house at an auction sale in Liverpool for seven hundred and fifty pounds! My pal Norman Bentley lived there with his sister Caroline.-Their father Tom worked at Camel Lairds. Norman was a great friend of Mick Ackroyd – he owned two boats, one a little red day sailer that broke up against the promenade in a gale. The other was his Nobby, I think it was called Mischief Number LL121.
I don’t remember concerts, but I do remember that we used to play football there in the late 60’s and early 70’s using the pillars as posts. Also sitting on the ledge where the stage was, but the roller shutters were always down. I do remember in the early 80’s there was talk of it being turned into squash courts and leisure facility, it was front page of the local news, however as has always been the case with Hoylake and then Wirral council the plans were rejected and again our town was left with nothing instead, when it was finally demolished.
You are alive then? That is good to know.Text me 07923620468.
I’m sure I remember the shelter structures still there in the early/mid seventies, for some reason as kids it seemed like a good place to play…or is it my imagination?
The circular bandstand was demolished before the war, I think, and replaced by one at the very far (Meols) end of the gardens. Then the brick structure, which most people seem to remember, was built near the original location. It was the brainchild of one Raymond Hubbard who worked in the Town Hall and it was referred to by other employees as “Hubbard’s Folly”. I saw it used only once, in the Summer of 1958, and I am fairly certain it was not used thereafter.
As kids, we (being members of my family and friends from the Midlands) used to shelter in bandstand and play cricket and rounders, in the 50’s/60’s. I also remember the Moroccans, including Pete Watson, playing live there, but the local residents complained about the noise, so it never happened again. Typical.