Candie Gardens is a park in St Peter Port,

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, originally established as a Victorian pleasure gardens in 1894.

Origins

The gardens were originally those of Candie House, and became a public park in 1894.

Features

The Upper Gardens feature panoramic views over the islands of

Herm Herm (Guernésiais: , ultimately from Old Norse 'arm', due to the shape of the island, or Old French 'hermit') is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Parish of St Peter Port in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is located in the English ...

and Sark. Two statues of note within the Upper Gardens are those of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

. The statue of Victoria was erected in 1900 to mark her

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...

; it was cast in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

by C B Birch and is a replica of those in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and the Thames Embankment, and was cast by the same

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

, Hollingshead & Burton of

Thames Ditton Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cross ...

. The statue of Hugo was erected in 1914, and was a gift of the French Government as thanks for the hospitality shown towards the writer during his exile on Guernsey. It was sculpted by Jean Boucher from stone, mounted on a limestone base, which, in turn, sits on a block of Jaonneuse

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

. The former Candie House is now the

Priaulx Library The Priaulx Library, located in St Peter Port, Guernsey, contains the island's principal collection of local and family history. History The library building, Candie House, and its initial collection of books were donated to the island by Osmond ...

. The Upper Gardens also feature the Guernsey Museum and an adjacent café, in the former bandstand. The museum was established in 1978, replacing the former Pavilion, at which

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

played in 1963. The Lower Gardens feature a rare surviving example of a Victorian Public Flower Garden, which was restored in 1998-99. There are also two surviving

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

s in the Lower Gardens, both dating from 1792 and 1793.

References

{{reflist Tourist attractions in Guernsey Saint Peter Port