3-028-634 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of Southwark Park, 1869. Public space in Rotherhithe, south-east London. 'Judging from the numbers who congregated on Saturday to witness the opening of the park, and again on Sunday, the people seemed to highly appreciate the boon which had been conferred upon them...in spite of the inclement weather, most of those assembled seemed to be people of the working classes who had put on their best attire in honour of the occasion...the 10th and 23rd, or 4th Administrative Battalion of Surrey Rifle Volunteers, numbering between 400 and 500 men, marched into the park inclosure, and took up position as a guard of honour...Near the grand entrance a platform had been erected, upon which were the representatives of different parish vestries...Sir John Thwaites declared, on behalf of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the park to be duly open to the public - an announcement which was received with loud cheers. The fact of the park having been declared open was announced to the persons outside by the firing of guns and the playing of the National Anthem. The gates of the inclosure were then thrown open, and thousands of persons at once rushed in, cheering with the utmost goodwill as they did so'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.