Situated centrally on the northern side of the City, Victoria Park remained in a natural state until the late 1880s when a bandstand arrived from Scotland and a suitable location had to be found. It was at this time that Deane’s Bottom (a playground for the students of Alfred Deane’s Springfield Academy) was transformed into a Victorian park. The Bandstand was purchased by the Town of Hamilton to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 but was not installed until 1889. In 1897, ten years after Victoria’s golden jubilee, the Town of Hamilton became a city in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. The City of Hamilton’s first public park was, for many years, a fashionable meeting place where audiences could enjoy the music of military bands. The park was also a popular location for social and political groups to meet. To commemorate Bermuda’s 400 years of continuous settlement on the Island in 2009, the bandstand was dismantled and shipped to a foundary in Scotland. Skilled labourers employed the same iron-casting techniques used by the original creators of the bandstand to restore it to its original glory. The bandstand was returned to Bermuda, installed and officially reopened during a ribbon cutting ceremony in May 2009.
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