Southport Winter Gardens

The Southport Winter Gardens was a Victorian entertainment area in the seaside town of Southport. It opened in 1874 on the sea front and consisted of two pavilions linked by a covered promenade. One pavilion housed the Pavilion concert hall with space for 2,500 people. The other was the Winter Garden, a vast iron-and-glass conservatory advertised as England’s largest. Refreshment rooms and an aquarium occupied the basement. The complex also included a small zoo and promenades under grand glass domes. The Winter Gardens was the first seaside winter garden in the UK and drew wide support with 350 local shareholders. Its fortunes declined after Frank Matcham’s Opera House opened nearby in 1891, straining finances. The Winter Garden became a ballroom and roller rink, the Pavilion a cinema, and both were later demolished in 1933 and 1962. The Opera House, designed by Matcham, seated 2,000 and hosted stars like Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving before burning down in 1929. Today the site holds the Garrick Theatre, an Art Deco building opened in 1932. It once seated 1,600 and featured a wide proscenium arch and ornamental garden terrace. Well-known performers such as George Formby appeared there before it became a cinema and later a bingo club. The former railway station frontage on Lord Street survives as a Travelodge, and a mural inside Morrisons marks the Winter Gardens’ memory.