Stanley Park, Blackpool - Facilities

Facilities

The park is designed with all main paths leading out radially from the circular Italian garden at the centre. At the very centre is a fountain surrounded by a number of flowerbeds and small statues. The steps leading down to this garden from the north are flanked by two ornamental lions which are copies of the Medici lions.

In the park's eastern quadrant is a large lake which is home to many water birds and is used for boating and fishing. The lake contains islands reserved exclusively for wildlife. Around the lake are situated a "trim trail" (open-air exercise facility), a bandstand with a large amphitheatre, a small crazy golf course and one of the park's two elaborate rose gardens.

The northern quadrant of the park is dominated by the 18-hole golf course which, although it is home to Blackpool Park Golf Club, remains a municipal facility. This area also contains the larger of the two rose gardens, six bowling greens and the park's central cafe. The cafe, Parks, is housed in an art deco building which has recently been reactivated after years of disuse. The cafe is close to a car park at the end of a road, Mawson Drive, leading from the main gate. Adjoining the car park is the visitors' centre, opened on 24 August 2005 by the 19th Earl of Derby.

The western quadrant is the site of a 5,000-seat cricket ground, home to Blackpool Cricket Club and regularly used for county cricket by Lancashire CCC. Stanley Park Sports Arena (which hosts a number of athletics competitions) and the Blackpool Sports Centre, containing three halls, a gym and a climbing wall, are located to the south of the cricket ground and this area also contains a putting green, table tennis tables and a conservatory.

Blackpool F.C., the town's professional football club, had its home at the athletic grounds on the same site between 1897 and 1899, prior to moving to its current Bloomfield Road address.

The southern quadrant is dominated by playing fields but is also the location of a children's play area and the Blackpool Model Village. The Model Village is an open air ornamental village in miniature and, while not directly accessible from within the park, is enclosed inside its perimeter to the southeast. A clock tower, a memorial to Blackpool's first mayor, Dr William Cocker, is to the south of the central fountain. Tennis courts, Astro-Turf pitches and a skateboard park and BMX track are also to be found in the southern part of the park.