Calderstones Park
Photo: Sue Adair / CC BY-SA 2.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden in Calderstones Park is a small Japanese-style public garden within one of Liverpool’s major municipal parks. Liverpool City Council describes Calderstones Park as a family park with woodland, a lake, fields, and Japanese and Old English gardens. The Japanese Garden is part of the park’s central ornamental garden areas.
History
Calderstones Park became a public park in the early twentieth century and later developed important botanical collections. The Japanese Garden was created by park apprentices in 1969 according to a historical summary of the park; some visitor and walking-route sources describe it more broadly as an apprentice scheme from the 1970s. The Japanese Garden Society notes that the garden was designed in the 1960s and that renovation work has been ongoing in cooperation with Friends of Calderstones Park.
Design features
The garden is a compact Japanese-style ornamental garden, enclosed within the wider Calderstones Park landscape. Recent descriptions and visitor material refer to it as a walled or enclosed Japanese garden with pond and waterfall elements, planting, maples and a quiet atmosphere. The Japanese Garden Society specifically mentions the pond and waterfall, and notes recent work to address invasive Sasa bamboo.
Garden elements
Buildings
Waters and islands
Stones
Current status
Extant Japanese-style garden within Calderstones Park. It remains part of the public park’s ornamental garden areas and has been subject to recent renovation efforts with support from Friends of Calderstones Park and the Japanese Garden Society.