Queen’s Park and the Carillon

I’ve wandered through our beautiful Queen’s Park quite a few times recently, and been struck by how fabulous it looks! Of course, I had quite forgotten that on 22nd July, the Carillon celebrated its 103rd year! It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating Carillon100, with a lovely event in the park.

Although I didn’t visit the park on the day, I was there for a bit of a photoshoot the day before, and a few days later, I enjoyed listening to the Quorn Ukulele Orchestra playing in the bandstand. And, yesterday, whilst out hunting down drain covers (as you do!) I captured the Carillon on film, from a couple of different vantage points.

Of course, there’s a lot of work goes on in the park which we’re not always aware of. IdVerde and the Friends of Queen’s Park do a wonderful job of maintaining and re-imagining the displays. I admit, I was sad to see the Olympic rings near the New Street entrance go, but, no doubt, the flower displays replacing them will be magnificent.

I was interested to read recently that the aviaries are to be replaced. They are going to be kept in the same position, but interestingly, they were not originally placed where they are now. You can hear me talking about this back in 2019, and you can see my hands in the BBC report about the forthcoming work! I believe the work has already started, so I must pop back to the park and record the progress!

As part of Loughborough’s offering for Heritage Open Days in September, I’ll be leading some walks around town, some of which will focus on Queen’s Park. Check the Heritage Open Days website for more details of all the events, and all the venues that are open in Loughborough!

And, the other big news is that next week is the blog’s 13th birthday!! As in the previous couple of years, I will again be hosting some exciting guest blogposts, so do pop back here and check them out!

In the meantime, enjoy the photos of my recent visits to Queen's Park and the Carillon.

21st July 2026, the day before the Carillon's 103rd birthday!

Olympic rings are now gone

 

The Quorn Ukulele Orchestra playing in the bandstand, Sunday 26 July 2026

Viewed from Arthur Street, 30 July 2026

Viewed from Brown's Lane, 30 July 2026

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). Queen’s Park and the Carillon. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/07/queens-park-and-carillon.html  [Accessed 31 July 2026]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

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By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

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You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

All Change at Queen's Park

Before getting the blog back on track with its focus on historical Loughborough, here's a quick photo blog showing some of the changes happening down at Queen's Park at the moment. The Hope Bell was featured in an earlier blog this year, so this post shows the new tarmacked paths, and the new lighting - but I think I forgot to take any photos of the new security cameras, but don't worry, they're quite obvious, so you won't miss them when you next pop down. 

Sometime last year, there was a lot of work done on trying to alleviate the tendency for the grassy patch close to the Carillon to flood. Hopefully this has had some effect. I'm sure I read somewhere that the reason the bandstand was moved from its original position close to the railings opposite the public library, was because that area flooded regularly, and so audiences often found their feet sinking into the grass, after a wet spell.

Anyway, here are the photos! First, the new lighting:

Next, one of the new tarmacked paths - this one leads to the bandstand: 

And finally, a view within the park, a view towards the buildings outside the park, and a few pics looking down on the park:

And here's an interesting view of the former HSBC bank, next door to the Town Hall!

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). All Change At Queen's Park. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/02/all-change-at-queens-park.html [Accessed 9 February 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Queen's Park

Our beautiful Queen's Park is a Green Flag award-winning park, created in Victorian times to provide an outside space where Victorian factory workers could enjoy a walk in the fresh air. Things have changed enormously since that time, and the park continues to adapt to suit lifestyles. Other Loughborough 'parks' mentioned include the Grand Union canal area, and the campus of Loughborough University. An article in the Leicester Mercury carries the full list of Leicestershire parks noted.

Enjoy some photographs of Queen's Park, taken during the past year.

July 2022

August 2022

November 2022

December 2022

January 2023

April 2023

May 2023

July 2023

___________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Queen's Park. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/07/queens-park.html [Accessed 30 July 2023]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Beautiful day in Queen's Park and the market place

It was such a beautiful day today that I decided to pop into the town centre and see what was new since I'd last been down! First I went into the gorgeous Queen's Park which looked wonderful, and it was great to see so many people out enjoying the surroundings! As luck would have it, there was a band playing in the bandstand too, the first of the season! Perfect accompaniment to a lovely day! Don't worry if you missed this performance, as there are more concerts scheduled for the bandstand throughout the summer!

When I finally got into town, it was interesting to see how huge the scaffolding was around the HSBC building, and how the markets have had to adjust to fit in the space left. And how wonderful that I saw the Way of the Wyrd Morris dance troupe and another group of dancers getting ready to perform. I'm guessing they were there to entertain the large crowd who had come along to visit the annual ceramics market! Wow! Such a lot of stalls, and some really interesting pottery to be seen! Here's some pics of the afternoon in the market place - it might not look busy, but it was actually very busy, but I tried very hard to avoid taking pictures of people. You can see pictures from previous years in earlier blogposts: 2021; 2019; and 2018.

______________________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Beautiful day in Queen's Park and the market place. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/05/beautiful-day-in-queens-park-and-market.html [Accessed 14 May 2023]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne