This animated view of Princes Park, complete with hot air balloon, celebrates the Fancy Fair that took place in the park in August 1849. It was produced by John Isaac, Draughtsman & Lithographer, of 62 Castle Street.
The fair was a ‘Philanthropic Festival’ held under the auspices of the Mayor of Liverpool and Chairman of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board, John Bramley-Moore – the Bramley-Moore Dock was named after him. The event raised the enormous sum of nearly £6,600 (some £845,000 in today’s money). The beneficiaries were three hospitals: the Infirmary, and the Northern and Southern hospitals, all now gone.
The park was built by local merchant and philanthropist Richard Vaughan Yates and designed by Joseph Paxton. Initially it opened as a private park in 1842 and was named after the newly-born Prince of Wales, Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In 1849, the same year that the Fancy Fair was held, Yates gifted the park to the town.
At far left is St Paul’s Anglican church, Belvedere Road (demolished 1975) and, at far right, Princes Park Mansions, originally built as a terrace of ten luxury houses; happily it is still standing.