‘Big, beautiful and full of memories - why East Park will always be close to my heart’

SUMMER COLOUR: A view across East Park

This Place, a column by Vicky Foster

Exploring Hull & East Yorkshire

East Park holds a special place in my heart. It's on Holderness Road in the heart of East Hull, and like most people who grow up on that side of the city, it’s probably the single space where I spent the most time when I was young. I hung about there with my mates, cut through on the way to school, did PE cross-country runs around the lake, hired rowing boats, rode the Victorian splash boat, played Block on the rocks with my family.

Then when I became a Mum, even though I didn’t live so close by anymore, it still became a place I’d visit regularly with my kids, I suppose partly because it’s such a special place to me, but also because there was so much to do for absolutely free.

As well as all the stuff I’d enjoyed there were extra things by then too; the new animals that roamed the enclosures, the newly-installed water play areas, the new playground, where I watched as they learned to climb steep metal stairs for the reward of the slide, race up the net-climb and brave the aerial wire. If I remembered to chuck some old bread in my bag as we left, we’d spend a good twenty minutes feeding the ducks too – an activity that’s part fun and part fear (I still relive the trauma of a goose pinching the sausage from my hot dog when I was six, and I never forget that people say a swan can break your arm!). But there’s nothing quite like the swarming feathers and the control you can exert with the flick of a dried-out crust.

CROWNING GLORY: The lake with islands and a curved stone bridge

So, this week, when I went back, it was with a sense of nostalgia. I hadn’t been for a few months, and I arrive on a morning when, after weeks of blistering heat, the day has dissolved into drizzle. Although I still pop in from time to time, it’s over a decade since I’ve been in East Park this early in the day.

I arrive about 8.30am, and I’ve already decided in the car where I’m heading first. If you’ve never been to East Park, there are probably some things worth explaining at this point. The first is that it's huge: one-hundred and twenty acres of grass, planted areas, wooded areas, two lakes - one with islands and a beautiful bridge - all studded with much-loved community features. Secondly, it’s always evolving. The differences between when I was little and when my children were little was huge, but it’s different again now.

It's quiet this morning, due to the hour and the rain, but it’s by no means deserted. As soon as I get out of the car my dog is approached by a couple of others. This is a favourite place for dog-owners, and whatever time of day you come, you’ll find plenty of pooches on their daily walks. After they’ve all had a good sniff of each other, I head off, passing a couple of men in the road, stretching in tracksuits, prepping for a run, and I remember this is also a favourite place for joggers. The circular road takes in all the highlights East Park has to offer, and there’s a Park Run here every Saturday at 9am.

AVENUE: East Park is full of tree-lined avenues

I cut across into what I’ve always known as the Secret Gardens – a lush, green area thick with trees and bushes, where paths and steps criss-cross the ground, which is speckled gold with fallen pine needles. It smells amazing, and I’m suddenly glad of the rain.

I emerge from here into a more formally planted area of privet, monkey puzzle, bursting pink and red geraniums. There’s a bowling green too, where a tiny tractor is carrying out maintenance work, and beyond that a solitary man is exercising in the outdoor gym – six machines in sturdy green and black metal – while the rain begins to fall more heavily around him.

Beyond this begins the wide stretch of green fields where, on most days, you’ll find formal football and rugby training or matches taking place, or else there’ll be kids having kickabouts, playing keepy-uppies. But I’ve also seen these fields packed with thousands of people for music concerts, or decked with funfair stalls and an arena, where a human cannonball, motorbike tricksters, medieval horse re-enactments and birds of prey have been putting on a show. Today it’s almost empty, the rain coming down in a heavy haze over the bright green grass and the shady trees at its edges.

I cut away, hoping to find shelter in the wide avenue of trees that runs the width of the park. Another couple of joggers pass, and a young woman, walking contemplatively beneath her umbrella. I’m still getting soaked, and not having had the forethought of this young woman, I head to another spot that I think will be drier. Passing the bandstand, I take the glass and metal bridge over shallow modern pools to gain access to the building that holds the library and the Pavilion Café. As well as hot drinks, you can get bacon butties, salad bowls, quiche, cake, slush puppies and ice-creams.  But it’s not open yet.

VAST: A lake on the 120-acre East Park

I know a few hiding places on the rocks though, and it makes me smile to see how the stones and bricks are still sunk, higgledy-piggledy, in the uneven earth of the hill. But it’s not dry here either, so I cross another bridge, this one with a dizzying point in the middle where you can look down and see how tall the walls are from the path that bisects this bit of the park.

You can see the huge water play area from here, populated today only by ducks, but it doesn’t take much imagination to guess how busy it must have been – and what a Godsend it must be – in the hot weather. It’ll be packed all summer, and if you want to use it, you have to book online before you come.

Beyond this lies one of the lakes – probably the park’s crowning glory – with its islands and curved stone bridge, its surface supporting green weed and sprouting reeds and wooden walkways. It’s home to mallards, drakes, swans, geese, and fish, and you can hire rowing boats, pedal boats and giant swan boats if you want to get a closer look at them all.

There’s also a boating lake, tucked away in another corner of the park, and an indoor animal centre too. But I’m soaked through by now, and I’m running out of space to write, and anyway, it won’t be long before I’m back in East Park again, because I can never stay away for long. I’d suggest you don’t either.