Who remembers this very unusual concrete fountain we used to have in the Town Hall Gardens in Southport….?
Alexei Sayle, star of The Young Ones, used to be among pranksters who would pour detergent into the fountain so it would be covered with bubbles! He was an arts student at Southport Technical College at the time.
It’s prompted many memories in our Stand Up For Southport Facebook group.
Tracy Sucksmith said: “Definitely remember it. I loved it when it was turned into one huge bubble bath.”
Lydia Peters-Engler : “When it was built we all hated it. The bubbles were a small act of showing that!”
David Atkins said: “Simms-Mitchell’s folly, named after the councillor who pushed the project through. It was fun, filled with suds.”
An anonymous poster said: “Oh yesss!! Especially with a cheap bubble bath from Woolworths!!!!”
Tony Wynne said: “Washing up liquid and red food dye…pink bubbles floating down Lord Street…”
Eilis Gardner said: “Yes I remember it. I also remember seeing lots of bubbles in it too and I think it used to have coloured lights that lit it up.”
Jude Lennon said: “I remember people adding colour to it on various occasions. The new fountain is much nicer.”
Gareth Hughes said: “Loved seeing it when we visited Southport in the seventies. I was apparently quite upset when it went.”
David Drummond said: “It cost £15,000 – a huge sum then. But the real crime wasn’t the hideous fountain but what was destroyed to make space for it. The original Victorian bandstand was demolished for this concrete monstrosity.”
Samantha Foreman said: “I was thinking about that fountain the other day.
“I liked it, it was different and made you feel like you were in a little jungle.”
Derek Hitchcock said: “There was an outcry when they got rid of the old bandstand to make way for this – every Saturday night it somehow ended up a bubble bath!!!”
Vanessa Dawn Packham said: “Oh I loved that fountain, many a time saw it bubbling over, I remember someone putting blue dye into it. Blue bubbles galore!”
Claire Branchett said: “Yes! And I also remember a man with puppets and an organ.”
Geoffrey Barnes said: “One of the things I looked out for when I visited Southport as a young child in the 70s. The other highlights were the pier train, the open air baths and the steam railway museum. All gone now.”
Debbie Winchester said: “It featured in my 1986 wedding photos – I was married at the Town Hall.”
Anne Gore said: “I remember it well, known as The Cascade, quite ugly really, especially without the water flowing.”
The Town Hall Gardens will soon be transformed into an exciting new family-friendly, child-orientated, and safe open-air performance and gathering space, in a scheme led by the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie.
We’ll wait and see whether a new 1970s concrete fountain is part of the vision…
What are your memories of this space?
Another old photo from this area shows the former Municipal Gardens Cafeteria in the Town Hall Gardens on Lord Street in Southport town centre.
Who remembers visiting here?
Our third images shows youngsters enjoy a dance weekend in Southport, lining up in the old Floral Hall Gardens, at Easter 1984.
Next we have families pictured with balloons outside the BEN Alexandra home on Lord Street in Southport in May 1984.
Our final images shows the Masons Arms pub on Anchor Street in Southport – then a Bass pub – and happily still going strong today.
- Do you have any old Southport memories or photos you’d like to share? Please email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com
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