Peel Park, Salford

Introduction

A library and museum adjoins the site to the south and the River Irwell runs along the eastern boundary. Over the river is a suspension bridge linking the park to the densely developed areas of housing to the east. The original design, now simplified, included an axial walk and a series of intersecting boundary walks. Statues included one of Queen Victoria in white Sicilian marble, unveiled by Prince Albert in 1857, and a similar one of the Prince Consort himself erected in 1874. On the eastern terrace there are bronze statues of Sir Robert Peel (1852) and Joseph Brotherton (1858). There is also a statue of Richard Cobden in Campanella marble (1867). All these statues are by Matthew Noble. On the same terrace there is a sculptured group representing Royalty, the middle classes and the industrialists together with figures of a shoeblack and a boy chimney sweep.