The colour of Pearson Park’s refurbished archway has been revealed.
The iconic archway was removed from the park in December and has been undergoing restoration by a specialist contractor.
When the gateway was deconstructed, paint samples were taken from areas across the whole of the structure.
It revealed the original red base coat was followed by several layers of a rich cream colour with accents of green, the colour the gateway was painted for the majority of its lifetime. The grey, white and yellow that visitors to Pearson Park would be more familiar with was a more recent addition.
The evidence from the analysis has been used to produce a colour scheme for the newly restored gateway. This gives the structure a brighter appearance that is more in keeping with a typical Victorian palette from the 1860s, the period when the archway was designed.
A drawing showing how features on the top of the archway will look.
Councillor John Fareham, chairman of the Pearson Park Trust and Project Steering Group, said: “The archway is one of the most recognisable and most-loved features of Pearson Park, which was the city’s first People’s Park. The Pearson Park Project is restoring the park to its former glory, and we wanted to recognise that in the colour scheme of the refurbished archway.
“The detailed analysis of the gateway revealed that it has predominantly been a rich cream colour with accents of green, as soon as we discovered this we wanted to incorporate these colours into the colour scheme of the refurbished archway.”
The archway is due to be returned to the park at the end of the summer. In preparation, improvement works are taking place around its location on Pearson Avenue.
These works will begin on Monday, with Pearson Park Avenue closing from today.
The archway was taken apart and the pieces are currently being restored by a specialist contractor.
The gateway was removed from Pearson Avenue in December last year. It was taken apart in sections and separated into nearly 50 pieces. The structure is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, so each of the pieces was tagged with a unique reference number which will be used when putting the archway back together again.
An original drawing and historic photographs of the archway found in Hull History Centre are being used to recreate the lost features. An expert pattern maker has produced up-scaled and hand-drawn drawings of each of the elements, from which casting patterns are created, which are then sent to the foundry for new the pieces to be cast in iron.
Innovative 3D scanning techniques, where a computer model of an existing feature has been produced, has been used to create patterns for replacement pieces, including a dolphin for the top of the gateway.
The Pearson Park archway before it was taken away for restoration in December last year.
The £3.8m Pearson Park Project has been supported by a £3m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
