Taking a stand
Campaigners band together to restore the hearts of their communities
WITH its ornate Edwardian ironwork and commanding view across the water towards Ailsa Craig, for years the grand bandstand on the fringe of Girvan’s seafront hosted all manner of seaside follies.
In an innocent age before cheap foreign holidays and multi-channel TV, the wide stage was the focus for the townsfolk drawn by musicians and singers.
There were the multi-talented performers of Ernest Hampson’s Pierrot troupe with their clown outfits and silly capers, ventriloquists, dancers and “al-fresco artists”.
Finally abandoned in the 1990s, the once-elegant bandstand became a sad reflection of its glory days. The ironwork became blackened and rusty, and it was surrounded by metal fences to prevent vandals and fire-raisers getting too close.
“It has definitely seen better days,” agrees Zanne Domoney-Lyttle, funding officer for local community group Adventure Centre for Education (ACE).
“But it’s a beloved building – drive through Girvan and you can’t miss it. “And we want to bring it back.” Instead of suffering the same fate of hundreds of bandstands around the country which fell out of use, deteriorated and were torn down, Girvan’s bandstand is set for a new lease of life.
ACE has just received a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund to develop plans to regenerate the bandstand. Its transfer to the group from South Ayrshire Council is imminent – the first steps towards a £200,000-plus restoration.
Once complete, Girvan bandstand, dating from 1907 and with a quaint tearoom at its centre, will become the latest addition to a remarkable countrywide trend that has seen dozens of bandstands restored to their spectacular former glory.
From Aberdeen’s Duthie Park, where the Victorian bandstand made in the 1890s by McDowall, Steven & Co at Milton Ironworks in Glasgow has been restored, to Keith in Moray where locals hope to restore their park bandstand and all the way to Hawick where a new one – a replica of one removed years ago – has recently been unveiled, bandstands are once again all the rage.
No longer blots on the landscape with their leaky roofs, paint-clogged ironwork and crumbling timber, they are being used for everything from yoga sessions to toddler groups, talks and demonstrations and – in a throwback to their past – even the occasional brass band.
Fortunes revived
ACCORDING to bandstand enthusiast Paul Rabbitts of Pavilions for Music, a website devoted to British bandstands, there has been a significant revival in their fortunes over the past decade.
More than just iron and timber, they often tell unique stories of the towns and villages where they are located and the talented Scottish iron foundries that churned them out in their hundreds for parks and public spaces at home, and for export all around the world.
At their peak, there were at least 1,200 bandstands in Britain.
As fashions changed their numbers dwindled to less than 500, with some stripped of their iron as part of the 1940s war effort, and other demolished after spiralling into decline.
Rabbitts puts their revival largely down to National Lottery funding which has supported park restoration projects over
No longer blots on the landscape with their leaky roofs, rust, paintclogged ironwork and dead timber, Scotland’s bandstands are now being revitalised and used for the common good – for everything from yoga sessions to toddler groups
the past two decades. “In their heyday, there were brass bands and military bands everywhere, but bandstands fell out of fashion as recreation and leisure changed,” he says..
“You could get music through the radio, gramophone, at the theatre and television, and bandstands died a death.
“If they still existed in the 1960s and 1970s, they suffered because there was no money to maintain them, so they were taken away and scrapped.
“But since 1996, the National Lottery has seen £1 billion given to restore parks up and down the country and around 120 bandstands restored or replaced across England and Scotland.
“Where there was an old and decrepit bandstand there is one that has been brought back to life.”
Bandstands are now multi-purpose venues for an array of uses, he adds.
“You will still get brass bands playing but you will find other things too like choirs, cookery demonstrations, yoga.”
Scottish-produced bandstands were among the most prized, sent around the world for parks and town squares in exotic locations – such as in Hamilton Park, Bermuda, where the ornate 1880s bandstand was made by Messrs George Smith & Co of the Sun Foundry, Glasgow.
Uruguay support
SOMETIMES even an expert like Rabbitts, who has written extensively on bandstands, public parks and park designers, can be surprised at how far Scottish bandstands travelled.
“I had a call from a gentleman who said he was the mayor of a town in Uruguay called Fray Bentos. He said there was a bandstand in the town square and he thought might be Scottish,” he recalls.
“At first I thought it was joke, but the town is real and there is a bandstand there from the Lion Foundry in
Kirkintilloch, donated by the meat packaging company. Many of the best bandstands came from Scotland.”
He points to Brighton seafront’s beautifully ornate bandstand crafted by Walter MacFarlane & Co of Saracen Foundry in Possilpark, Glasgow.
The firm cornered a market that saw foundries across the central belt offer civic leaders the chance to commission a bespoke design bandstand or flick through a catalogue to choose one that suited.
As a result, carbon copies of bandstands could be found in diverse locations: Walter MacFarlane’s bandstand in Elder Park, Adelaide, is identical to the bandstand in Newcastle’s Exhibition Park.
“But the sad thing,” adds Rabbitts, “is that there’s not a MacFarlane bandstand in Glasgow. They’re all gone.”
Many of the bandstands now being restored have survived against the odds.
At Stonehouse in North Lanarkshire, the elaborate B-listed bandstand, with its puffy cheeked cherubs, highly decorative red and gold cupola, ironwork garlands, bows, ribbons and roses has been lovingly brought back to life. Restoring it has cost around £250,000. But according to John Young, of Friends of Stonehouse Park, it was too significant to simply allow to rot away. “It does look amazing,” he says. “It is one of the finest examples of bandstands in Scotland and few have the history that this one has.”
The bandstand is one of the last remnants of the 1911 Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry, a huge event that showcased the best of industry and culture, and attracted millions of visitors to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove.
The bandstand stood on the site of the current Kelvingrove bandstand in an auditorium that held up to 10,000 people. It was dismantled and moved to Stonehouse as the focal point of Alexander Hamilton Park for its opening in May 1925.
“Stonehouse was a destination for tourists in the 1930s – it had the country’s longest chute, a shooting range, golf course, Stonehouse Silver Band, and a pipe band,” adds Scott.
Painted over
EVENTUALLY the bandstand fell into disrepair, sparking a community push to have it restored. The work revealed elements of the ironwork and structure long since glossed over by countless layers of paint. “It revealed cherubs and a lion’s face with a hole in it that allowed rainwater to escape,” he says.
“It is incredibly beautiful and has become the focus and inspiration for a lot of people to do more in the community.”
There have been similar restorations the length and breadth of the country.
In Dock Park, Dumfries, the 19th-century bandstand was revived as part of a £2 million effort to regenerate the public space. And in Crieff’s Macrosty Park, the 1906 bandstand built by James Allan Senior & Son at the Elmbank Foundry in Glasgow was restored in 2010, with blue ironwork, white pillars and smart red roof.
At Bridgeton Cross in Glasgow the 50ft cast-iron bandstand with its impressive clock tower, built in 1875 by the city’s Sun Foundry, was overhauled as part of preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
More recently, a new bandstand was built for Hawick’s Wilton Lodge Park. A replica of an earlier bandstand which once graced the site, it has been used for music events and Sunday “summer sessions” gatherings.
Just as Girvan’s bandstand is set for a new lease of life, there are hopes of restoring Overtoun Park bandstand in Rutherglen and Cowan Park bandstand in Barrhead. And in St Andrews, Fife Council is preparing to restore St Andrews bandstand on The Scores after years of exposure to the elements.
A flagship example of bandstand restoration is at Edinburgh’s Saughton Park – also a reminder of how not all structures survived.
Joe McGuigan, chairperson of Friends of Saughton Park, says it has become a focal point for the community. “People like to just sit in it and it is beautiful,” he said. “It feels like it is the beating heart of the park.”
In their heyday, there were brass bands bands everywhere, but bandstands fell out of fashion as recreation and leisure changed