Princes Gardens, Aldershot

The Princes Gardens is an urban park in the town of Aldershot in Hampshire. A short walk from the town centre on a site bordered by the town's High Street, Wellington Avenue and Barrack Road and opposite the Princes Hall theatre, it has been a public park since 1930. Today the park is managed by Rushmoor Borough Council.[1]

Statue 'The Airborne Soldier' unveiled in Princes Gardens in 2019

History
Charging Horse sculpture in Princes Gardens

The park is on the site of the former Royal Engineers Yard where a small party of NCOs and men of the Royal Engineers arrived in November 1853 making them the first soldiers to arrive in Aldershot, a fact commemorated on a modest plaque in the ground behind the sculpture of the horse and Bailey bridge. These engineers were responsible for surveying and making the preliminary arrangements for The Camp at Aldershot.[1][2] At this time the area was heathland with the only building in sight being the Union Poor House, the former home of the Tichborne family. As the Camp was established and grew, the Royal Engineers expanded their initial small collection of huts and this area became the Royal Engineers Yard. It continued to be used for this purpose until 1929 when the military huts were demolished.[3][4]

The area that is now Princes Gardens was purchased from the War Department by Aldershot Borough Council in 1930 at a cost of £16,500 and the site cleared. Over the next decade two cinemas were built at the lower end of the site, the Empire and Ritz cinemas, while the upper end was used as the Princes Gardens with a car park between it and the cinemas.[5] The Aldershot Gazette and Military News welcomed the new Princes Gardens which had turned land that had been “an almost desolate waste” into “a beauty spot” which would be “more restful to the eye than the old barren promontory” left after the removal of the Royal Engineers’ Yard. On 5 July 1945 troops of the Canadian Army Overseas gathered in the gardens before smashing the windows of local shops on the second evening of the Aldershot riot. An ornamental fountain was unveiled in the gardens in 1954 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Army in Aldershot. This was later removed.

The Princes Gardens today
The bandstand in Princes Gardens

Today Princes Gardens is a venue for public events including local celebrations and public concerts. It has a number of ornamental flower beds with grassed areas and seating. In celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Rushmoor Borough Council erected a permanent bandstand in 2012 where brass bands, dancers and solo artists regularly perform. The design was chosen by local people and the bandstand was officially opened in 2012 during the town's Victoria Day Jubilee Celebration.[6] Central to the park is a sculpture of a charging horse crossing a section of Bailey bridge titled “The end is where we start from” which was unveiled in 1994 as part of an Older Urban Area Regeneration scheme and which represents the link between the civilian town of Aldershot and the British Army.[1]

Princes Gardens also has a refurbished cast iron wheel on a blue pearl granite plinth which was erected in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Rotary International together with other plaques and memorials celebrating the site's historic background.[1]

In 2010 the Princes Gardens Surgery was built on part of the lower section of Princes Gardens.[7]

Princes Gardens features in the novel Maralinga by Judy Nunn.[8]

On 6 July 2019 a life-size statue called 'The Airborne Soldier' was unveiled in the park. The figure stands on a base of stone from the Falkland Islands, a gift from the people and Government of the Falkland Islands. Sculpted by Amy Goodman, the statue is located in Aldershot in recognition of the more than 50 years association the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces had with the town and people of Aldershot from 1946 to 2000. The statue is placed looking towards the former Parachute Regiment Depot in the Military Town. More than 2,000 former and serving Airborne Forces soldiers lead by the Band of the Parachute Regiment paraded at the celebrations followed by a drumhead service in Princes Gardens.[9][10]

See also
View across Princes Gardens with the Princes Gardens Surgery in the background

References
  1. The Princes Gardens on the Rushmoor Borough Council website
  2. Aldershot Military Cemetery on the English Heritage Listed Buildings site
  3. Howard N. Cole, The Story of Aldershot: a History of the Civil and Military Towns, Gale & Polden, Aldershot (1951) pgs 36-37
  4. Paul Vickers, Aldershot Through Time, Amberley Publishing (2013) - Google Books
  5. Cole, pgs215-6
  6. Aldershot's Community Bandstand - Rushmoor Borough Council website
  7. The History of Princes Gardens Surgery on the Princes Gardens Surgery website
  8. Judy Nunn, Maralinga, Hachette Digital (2009) - Google Books
  9. The Airborne Soldier in Aldershot - The Parachute Regimental Association website
  10. Airborne forces march-past and statue unveiling - Rushmoor Borough Council website

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