Cliff Gardens and Town Hall Gardens, Felixstowe, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Until the middle of the 19th century, Felixstowe was an agricultural area with few buildings and a minimal population. In the latter part of the century however the railway came, linking Felixstowe with Ipswich and at the same time many of the gentry began purchasing land and property in the area. The town grew rapidly and increased in stature following a holiday visit by a German Empress in 1891. In 1897, the Felixstowe Spa and Winter Garden Company decided to develop a public garden along the seafront, associated with a natural spa well which had become a popular visitor attraction. Although they ran a competition to design a pavilion and garden, and a winner, Brightwen Binyon, was chosen, the designs were not realised. In 1902, the Felixstowe and Walton Urban District Council built a granite sea wall with a promenade along it and at the same time laid out a small public garden on the cliff beside the Town Hall (OS 1903). It has been suggested that the artificial rockwork used in the creation of the seafront gardens was the work of James Pulham and Sons (P Shepherd Assocs 2002). In 1907 a bandstand was erected at the Spa by the council and when the owner of the Felix Hotel (formerly known as The Balmoral), which stood on top of the cliff to the north-east of the Town Hall, began to develop its grounds, the desire to make further improvements to the area around the nearby Spa were resurrected, this time by the Urban District Council. A pavilion, known as the Spa Pavilion, was built in 1909 and the local Woodbridge firm of Notcutts Nurseries was commissioned to lay out the accompanying Spa Gardens and to provide the plants. The result was an intricate series of terraces and paths with seats, shelters, enclosed gardens, and long vistas. From 1919 onwards a series of changes were made, most notably the replacement of the main zig-zag path down the cliff with the elaborate scheme of paths and planting beside the Pavilion which survive today. During the Second World War the Spa Pavilion was destroyed by a bomb but was rebuilt by the council in 1950. In the same decade the owners of the Felix Hotel gave their stretch of seafront garden, the Cliff Gardens, to the town and this was incorporated into the existing Spa Gardens. The seafront gardens remain (2003) in the ownership of the local authority.