The Hunt for Gloucester Boating Lake

I have fond childhood memories of Gloucester Boating Lake. I remember long summer days on board a rowing boat with my Dad. I remember ice creams and feeding the ducks. So armed with a day off I decided to take my children  there to see what remained of this once beautiful green space in the heart of the city.

I was aware that the lake was no longer in use but I was not sure whether it was still accessible. So liking an adventure we did some research and discovered that the council carried out a consultation about re-generating the area with one of the proposals being a child’s play area, and we checked the website and got confirmation that the car park was in operation. We set out optimistic about what we might find.

When we got there we were disappointed to find the car park gate locked with a curt sign asking that people keep clear, as access is required at at all times. But access for who? Not for us that’s for sure. Slightly peeved but undeterred we parked in a car park on the opposite side of the very busy road about half a mile down the road and we then walked back to the site of the pedestrian access to the lake.

What we found was rather sad and I have included a photo gallery of our discoveries.

Whilst the space was beautiful, in a wild kind of way, and the walk was nice it was a shame to think of what it once was and the potential it still has as a really nice space that should be able to be fully enjoyed by the community. It is full of potential and wouldn’t take a lot of money to put right again. Just some new benches, clean up the lake and maybe an ice cream shack for the summer. I wondered what happened to the consultatuion and where else are the council are spending our money if not for the community?

We love finding beauty in unexpected places and towards the end of our walk we stumbled upon this wonderful painting by street artist Trix.