Queen's Park

A historic, award winning and beautifully maintained park in the heart of Loughborough town centre.

Queen's Park is a much loved local park which has achieved a Green Flag award every year since 2008, a mark of excellence awarded to parks and green spaces. It was first opened in June 1899 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

It offers people a wide range of things to do and is a very popular park with local residents and visitors to the town.

There is a large amount of open grassland for recreation as well as a large number of paths for short walks and plenty of places to sit and catch up with friends. It is home to a range of facilities and combined with the large number of trees, shrubs and fantastic floral displays, Queen's Park provides the perfect place to play, relax or learn.

The park is home to a variety of facilities including:

• Under 12s play area
• Challenging activities for young people involving balancing, swinging and climbing.
• Bowling Green
• Carillon Tower War Memorial and Museum
• Bandstand
• Aviaries
• Swan Maze
• Charnwood Museum

The park is easily reached by foot, bicycle, car or bus. There are several entrances to the park on Brown's Lane, New Street and Granby Street.

Pay and display car parking is available close to the park at the Granby Street Car Park.

Drainage works in the park

We are carrying out works to improve the drainage of a grassed area in the park.

It is hoped it will reduce the amount of times the grass and path is waterlogged in wet weather.

Works are expected to last around three weeks and means the path which runs along the side of the stream will be closed to visitors while works are being completed.

You can find more information on the drainage works in the park web page.

Opening times for the park

The park opens at 7.40am on weekdays and 8.10am on weekends. 

The park closes at different times during the year. The last gate to be locked is Granby Street. Please vacate the park by this time.

Closing times by month:

• January - 4.30pm
• February - 5pm
• March - 6pm
• April - 8pm
• May - 9pm
• June - 9pm
• July - 9pm
• August - 8pm
• September - 7pm
• October - 6pm
• November - 4.30pm
• December - 4pm

Queen’s Park Café

The Queen's Park Cafe is situated next to Charnwood Museum. The café serves food, hot drinks, and snacks.

Works have recently taken place to improve the outside seating area of the cafe. The improvements are being funded through Loughborough Town Deal as part of the Living Loughborough project.

The cafe is open on the following days and times:

• Monday-Saturday - 9.30am
• Sunday - 10am

You can follow the Queen's Park Cafe on social media by visiting their Facebook page.

Queen's Park Summer bandstand concerts

Our summer programme of concerts resumed on Sunday May 12, 2024 with a concert from the LSU Classical Concert Band.

All concerts commence at 2pm and are FREE to attend.

Full schedule*

• Sunday May 12 – LSU Classical Concert Band
• Sunday June 2 – Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra
• Sunday June 9 - The Junkyard Cats Jazz Band
• Sunday June 16 – Melbourne Town Band
• Sunday June 30 – Loughborough Concert Band
• Sunday July 7 – Charnwood Concert Band
• Sunday July 14 – Loughborough Male Voice Choir
• Sunday August 4 – The New Orleans Hotshots Jazz Band
• Sunday August 25 – Quorn Ukelele Orchestra
• Sunday October 13 - LSU Classical Concert Band

*Please note that dates and acts are subject to change, and more dates might be added in the coming weeks.

Public Art

Since 2012, Queen's Park has hosted a number of unique sculptures designed by students from Loughborough University. Each year the sculptures are commissioned by us as part of the annual Loughborough in Bloom competition.

Students from the University's School of the Arts has so far designed sculptures to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games, the casting of the Great Paul Bell Casing by the Taylor Bell Foundry and the Centenary of the start of the First World War.

Friends of Queen’s Park

The Friends of Queen's Park is a volunteer group of local people devoted to the care and protection of Queen’s Park. Their aim is to restore this lovely example of a Victorian Park. They want to ensure that it remains true to its original concept; to provide a peaceful, beautiful and enjoyable green place for people of all ages to enjoy now and in the future.

New members are always welcome and meetings are bi-monthly.

Friends of Queen's Park can be found on Twitter.

History

• 1899 - Queen's Park was officially opened by Mr W.B. Paget, as four acres of land.
• 1902 - The Bandstand was officially opened, near to the Granby Street entrance, but by 1914 it had been moved to its current position beneath the Carillon.
• 1905 to 1907 - an additional six acres of land were acquired from the adjoining dye works and development of the space continued.
• 1916 - The final piece of land was purchased to complete the park as the size and shape we know it today.
• 1922 - The foundation stones were laid for the Carillon tower which opened a year later.
• 1928 - The stone balustrade around the Carillon tower was in place as well as the ornate New Street gate. Since this time the park has remained largely unchanged in its layout.