A Bandstand And A Grandstand. The bandstand in Leazes Park is pictured here in front of the Sir John Hall Stand at St James’ Park football ground. It’s a modern replica of the Victorian bandstand that had been installed in the park shortly after it opened.
Newcastle was a dirty and densely populated town by the middle of the 19th century, sanitation was almost non-existent in the homes of the poor, and diseases such cholera regularly swept through their neighbourhoods. The Corporation eventually bowed to public pressure and opened Leazes Park in 1873, the first in the town, as a place of healthy recreation and respite.
Newcastle was quite late in doing this, other towns and cities had been opening public parks and municipal pleasure gardens for some time, especially in the industrial north. A whole industry had sprung up supplying them with furniture, fountains and other fixtures, with the iron foundries around Glasgow providing most of these products.
Bandstands could be bought in flat-pack form and assembled on site, as was the case with the one in the Exhibition Park, which came from the MacFarlane Saracen Foundry of Glasgow. But Newcastle Corporation chose a more bespoke model for Leazes Park from George Smith & Co. of Glasgow, at a cost £115. It was installed in 1875.
The Leazes Park bandstand had fallen into disrepair by the 1960s and was removed for reasons of safety. But a £3.7 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund was used to restore the park to its original condition, so it got a new bandstand. It was built in 2003 by Heritage Engineering of Glasgow, who used old plans and photographs to replicate the original one.
It isn’t an exact replica, being slightly smaller than its predecessor, and the floor of the current bandstand is at ground level for easy access, while the original bandstand had stood on a concrete plinth.