THE BANDSTAND in Leamington’s Pump Room Gardens will be officially unveiled next month following a full facelift.
The historic bandstand, one of the few surviving structures of its type in the country, had held pride of place in the town’s Pump Room Gardens since 1889, but had been showing signs of age and neglect.
As part of a £1.4million revamp of the gardens, it was carefully dismantled last year and taken to a specialist workshop in Wigan to be restored to its former glory at a cost of around £250,000.
It is now being put back up and to celebrate its return a special event is planned in the gardens on Friday March 15, from 1pm to 2.30pm.
There will be a talk from Lost Art, the company responsible for the bandstand’s rejuvenation, the showing of a short film made by town marketing company MadeBySonder, and the official reopening of the bandstand which will be accompanied by a first performance by Royal Spa Brass on the new stage.
Warwick District Council’s neighbourhood services spokeswoman Coun Moira-Ann Grainger said: “The return and unveiling of such an important part of the history of Royal Leamington Spa has been eagerly anticipated by everyone involved in this project.
“I very much hope that our community will take the opportunity to come along and celebrate the amazing work that has gone into the restoration of the bandstand and the Pump Room Gardens, which can now be enjoyed by local people and visitors to our town for many years to come.”
Archie Pitts, Chairman of the Friends of the Pump Room Gardens, added: “It is wonderful to see our bandstand coming back as good as new, if not even better, 130 years after it was first installed.
“The Friends are hugely grateful to all who very generously enabled us to raise over £100,000 towards the restoration of the bandstand and the gardens. Thank you to Lost Art for such fabulous workmanship.”
The mainly Heritage Lottery Funded restoration, together with £100,000 each from the district council and Friends of the Pump Room Gardens, has seen the bandstand restored to its former glory, and also landscaping, and new paths.
