Prince Albert Gardens is a park in

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, England. It was established in 1996.

Origins

The site was originally open grazing land. Prior to being established as a park, Prince Albert Gardens was the site of a miniature golf course. Prince Albert Gardens was established in 1996 as part of the Swanage Seafront Improvement Scheme. In 1997 the project received a commendation at the

Civic Trust Awards The Civic Trust Awards scheme was established in 1959 to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment. As the longest standing built environment awards scheme in Europe, since 1959, more than 7000 projects have ...

Features

The landscaping of the gardens forms a gradual transition from the urban edge of town to the wilder adjoining landscape of the Downs. Prince Albert Gardens - geograph

A sculpture by

Mary Spencer Watson Mary Spencer Watson (7 May 1913 – 7 March 2006) was an English sculptor. Watson was born in London and spent most of her life in Dorset and was inspired by watching masons carving Purbeck stone, close to her family home there. Her works can ...

, the ''Lady of the Rocks'', made from

Purbeck stone Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck M ...

, is located in the gardens. Prince Albert Gardens - geograph

The gardens also feature two

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

, made from

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

and dating from the early 19th-century, around which is built an outdoor amphitheatre. The columns, which are

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, were formerly part of the forecourt of the Grosvenor Hotel, which has been demolished since the columns were listed. The Prince Albert Memorial was erected by George Burt in 1862, and was the first civic memorial to Prince Albert. It was removed from its original site in 1971, and stored, until it was re-established at the eastern end of Prince Albert Gardens in 2021. There had been earlier attempts in 1996 and 2000 to place the memorial in the gardens. In June each year the gardens host the Swanage Fish Festival. An episode of BBC's ''

Songs of Praise ''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...

'' was filmed in the gardens in 2021. Other music and theatre performances take place in the gardens. The open air theatre group, SISATA, started with a week's run in the gardens in 2012.

References

{{coord, 50, 36, 25, N, 1, 57, 08, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Isle of Purbeck Environment of Dorset Swanage Parks and open spaces in Dorset 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom