HC Deb 16 November 1936 vol 317 cc1338-9W
Mr. LIDDALL

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, whether, in view of the failure of his Department and the garden staff to surmount the difficulties of the ground-slope and aspect of the undeveloped parts of the Queen Mary garden, and to recognise the potentialities of improving the Hylas gardens in Regent's Park without much expenditure, he will invite the advice of an expert landscape garden designer?

Mr. R. S. HUDSON

(for the First Commissioner of Works): My Noble Friend does not admit that the layout of these gardens presents any difficulty to his Department. Schemes have been drawn up and approved for the treatment of Queen Mary's Gardens as a whole. The northern area has been laid down to grass, and flower beds will be added during the coming year. At the same time, the work of improving the area adjoining the Open-Air Theatre will proceed. The garden next to St. John's Lodge has already been laid out in a way which, so far as my Noble Friend is aware, has given general satisfaction.

Mr. LIDDALL

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, why the public is excluded for 10 months of the year from that portion of Regent's Park used as an open-air theatre during two summer months; whether it can now be opened for public enjoyment; if it be decided to accommodate the theatre elsewhere in future will he employ an expert garden designer to convert the theatre area into a dell or wilderness or, in the alternative of its continued use for open-air plays, will he forbid the re-election of the unsightly sheds, roofs, and hoardings and the display of advertisements?

Mr. HUDSON

(for the First Commissioner of Works): The area in question is closed so as to enable the grass to recover. My Noble Friend has not under consideration any proposal for removing the Open-Air Theatre to another site, but he will consider the possibility of improving the external appearance of the theatre if it can be done without undue expenditure.