Uncoloured postcard showing a view of part of the Marine Gardens, Southport. Ink: [personal message] [address in Ripon supplied]. The promenade at Southport was laid out by Peter Fleetwood Hesketh in the 1830s, and subsequently developed with a pier (1860). The Corporation bought up much of the foreshore in the 1880s, creating South Marine Gardens (opened 1885) and North Marine Gardens (1892). Thomas Mawson submitted development plans that were not adopted, but influenced the subsequent design of King's Gardens (1913). Prince's Park, with its funfair, was created in the early 1920s. The Floral Hall (later incorporating a theatre) was built in 1928 and later extended over much of North Marine Gardens; a bridge, often referred to in its early years as the Floral Bridge, was built in 1932