Pavilions for Music 

This is a website with a bit of a difference. It has the sole purpose of assisting in an initiative in "Bringing Bandstands back to life". After several years of being online, it has been refreshed with new graphics, updates, images, news and guidance.

Bandstands have been a feature of the British way of life for well over a century but after the Second World War an increasing number fell into disuse and were neglected. Sadly many were demolished as public parks and seaside resorts went into a spiral of decline in the 1980s and 1990s. However, in 1997 the Heritage Lottery Fund started investing in our public parks and gardens and this has seen the rediscovery of bandstands which has continued to this day. Former Director of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Dr Stewart Harding has described them as ‘wonderfully exotic structures that are at once very familiar and also alien in their strange designs - looking like UFOs, Moorish temples, rustic cottages or Chinese pavilions’.

This revival is still under way and continues to this day. Over 120 bandstands have been restored and are now in use up and down the country and are once again becoming the focal points of restored and vibrant parks, not just echoing to the sounds of brass, but often bouncing to rhythm and blues, rock, opera, street theatre and drama. A bandstand is, however, merely an empty shell unless music is played on it and once again many local authorities (but not all) and other organisations are realising this. Their return is welcome. Many bandstands are back.... but many are still silent.