The aerial picture of Luftwaffe bombing targets on another thread made me look a bit more closely at Central Park. I noticed that there's no island in the middle of the lake - when did that appear? Also, the area of the park behind Park Primary School is now all one big field; I dimly remember (late 60s?) some swings etc (one rocking contraption made a terrible whiney creaking noise!) and at least part of the area being separated out into smaller areas by hedges.

Does anyone have any memories or photos of how the park used to look, either these areas or any others? eg the small play area by the cricket pavillion with the concrete snake, or the other one with the fort at the other end of the park? Or any with the lake drained??? (I've been told - urban myth? - there was a large plug that could empty the lake if it was pulled out!)

Apologies if there's already a thread devoted to this.

I've seen an old photo of the lake without the island plus it used to have rowing boats on it.

omg I remember the concete snake and the concrete fort by the prefabs down by the lower lake by the mothers field, by eck what memories, the little swings by park primary used to have a "witches" hat kinda thing that went round........ahhh sweet memories

I'd forgotten the prefabs! I have a memory of a wooden stake fence round them - is that right?

I'd forgotten the witch's hat - too scary for me as a 4 yr old!

Remembering also the place where they grew the flowers and plants which used to be open to the public only occasionally (near where the Art School was). Also the shelter overlooking the lake, and the bushes by the big boulders on one of the paths up from the lake - we used those bushes as a den one summer!

I remember that little park by Park Primary. I lived in Gorsey Lane and went there briefly when i was six years old. The litle path that led through to it had high hedges (to me they were high anyway) but its the smell of these hedges that i remember. Whenever i pass one of these hedges now and smell the aroma the hedge gives off it's almost like time travel, taking me right back there.
The concrete snake was a blast from the past, i'd forgoten all about it. The witches hat too, fell off that with the obligatory grazed knees as a souvenir.

Even recently there were swings etc by Park Primary, we used to take my little boy there coz there was never anyone else there!

An Edwardian photo of Central Park Lake - clearly with no island - plus a selection of others from c1959. I have no idea when the island first appeared - it was certainly there in 1959, but oddly enough it never seems to have been marked on any OS map.

Fabulous pictures! Thank you

The island in the lake looks a fairly recent addition in this photo - it got overgrown pretty quickly. Lots of trees on the slopes on the side of the lake too. And what a wonderful display in the flower gardens by the (much missed) Art School building. (How could such a magnificent building be allowed to deteriorate?)

Anyone remember the maypole in the main playground? (Just noticed the high slide on that photo!)

Stegga - absolutely right about the smell of those hedges - were they the ones with the big white flowers? I remember the long grass with the burrs we used to throw to try to stick on coats and jumpers!

The island may well have been built in the late 50s, as the latest large scale OS map I have seen is from 1954. I'll see if I can find a 1960s or 70s edition to see if the island has been included on those - there's certainly nothing on the smaller scale maps even in the mid-70s.

Ah, that playground! Such memories... I think I still have a bit of grit embedded in my knee somewhere. That slide was lethally high! The maypole thing had metal rings you hung onto I think. Lovely pictures - but rather sad; I still grieve for Liscard House, its neglect and destruction was a disgraceful waste of a landmark building.

i remember getting bit on my arse by a dog in the playgrond, i was playing on the metal climbing frame, i always said it looked like a small rollercoaster, the good old days

Yeah that mini playground only went recently, I'm sure it was still there last summer, why did it go!? It was nice to take a stroll round that way and get away from the ... in the main play area. And when I moved here 18 yrs ago the bottom playground by the lower duck ponds was still there but very run down and I think it was removed a year or two later and grassed over, my boys loved that little fort.

On a bit of a tangent but went to Harrison park recently and the play area there is awesome and I was thinking to myself why the heck dont we have the cooler nicer stuff in Central seeing as its a main park and quickly realised why - it'd be destroyed by the deliquent feral morons that plague the place!

Well said,once you dodge the white lightning cider bottles,special brew cans,spit and glass it was a nice place buy the little fort always stunk off pee.

there are some nice parks out there,

ive not been to central park for years, sad to know the little park has gone, i loved the fort, yes it stunk

is the pond still there the 1 with railings around it, the amount of times i had to climb over to get my football

why was there railings round the pond ????

oo the smell of that fort. back to central park lake I used to live in Pendennis Road and remember the park used to close at 8pm, a bell used to ring and all the parkies chased everyone out and actually locked it till next morning. Also remember someone being murdered in the park about 30 years ago

I remember that murder - I think it's come up on another thread. It was about 1977 or therabouts - I went past the gates by the lake at the Deveraux Drive entrance one Saturday morning and it was all sealed off.

There was one park keeper in particular who was fearsome - not just at closing time! I remember us hiding in some bushes by the rose gardens and getting chased...

No-one's yet said whether it's possible that the lake could be drained --- ???

Also, another memory from the early 70s of seeing some huge fish in the lake - moving so fast through the water that there was a wake - someone said it was a carp. It was a hot afternoon and plenty of people were around to see it.

the lake did get drained a few years back

as for the parkies, the parks would be a better place these days if we still had them !

I totally agree, I remember a parkie called Dennis who chased me round the park many a night.......thank god he never caught me ha ha

I was born in 1945 and lived close to Central Park and in all honesty I think of her as being my 'Alma Mater', I stole my first kiss there, also had my face slapped for the first time, learned to value my friends and to avoid trouble (in the form of the Parkie), I can trace my passion for fishing back to the days when net and jam jar in hand we chased the sticklebacks around the lake or climbed into the forbidden lake (too deep for children!) to try for the elusive carp reported as being there, never seen or caught!
Near to the front entrance to the Art School overlooking the ornamental gardens was a shelter that before being re-furbished around 1957 had ‘private’ closed off rooms where you could ‘entertain’ your latest girlfriend and if you were lucky be allowed a kiss and cuddle, nothing more or you had a red cheek to show your ‘mates’, not street cred! Shame the council changed it what a loss to generations of Wallasey school boys.
Another area popular amongst our age group was the ‘swings’ located between the Art School and the Cricket Club, one trial of manhood was to be raised up to fit your arms through the rings of the ‘maypole’ and then spun around by your mates until you yelled to stop, were sick or fell off, great wish they still did it!
Standing up on the bars of the Witches Cap whilst it was spun extremely fast with the resulting yawing induced by your mates was also very popular.
There was a ride that out shone all others it was the ‘swing boat’, this could be manned alone or more dangerously by two brave souls, you could in theory sit on the ride while the other two heroes tried to out do each other, but I never saw it done.
The Swing Boat was swung backwards and forwards with greater and greater effort until it reached it’s maximum limit and banged against the supporting frameworks cross piece, this occasionally resulted in one or both riders to be thrown off.
One lasting memory is of the original Toilet and Changing rooms near the Tennis Courts and Lake, the WC’s where a row of six or seven cubicles connected by one wooden trough that had constant running water, one child, it wasn’t me, made a paper boat which was place in the trough, set on fire and allowed to coast along roasting chestnuts as it went!
Many happy times were had, fun and good natured foolery, Oh how I wish you still could do so without being non-pc.

Brilliant memories! Thanks for sharing! (I wonder if I'm the only person to have ever seen the carp then???)

We called it the "jerker" but our swing park was the quarry in Rowson street. Looking back it was extremely dangerous for riders and anyone who wandered near it.