Parklife:
A Portrait of Woodvale Park

The groups involved were Friends of Woodvale Park, Belfast City Council, Police Service for Northern Ireland and Woodvale Bonfire Festival.

Woodvale Park is a Victorian park with landscape flowerbeds and a bandstand. The park has two football pitches, a 7-a-side soccer area, two bowling greens and a pavilion, a children’s playground with toddlers play area, an outdoor exercise area, a community garden and a number of allotment plots. Comprising of around 25 acres, Woodvale Park was sold to Belfast Corporation by Reverend Glover in 1888. He lived in Woodvale House, towards the south of the park, near Woodvale Avenue. The park is also home to the Peace Tree which won Northern Ireland Tree of the Year in 2015. There are around three miles of paths in the park.

An opening ceremony was scheduled for 3pm on Saturday 18 August 1888. However, by 3.35pm, the dignitaries had not turned up so a park ranger took the key and opened the gates to the large crowd!

The Woodvale area of Belfast is an area immediately to the north of the Shankill Road.