The Bandstands have been based on the themes of:
'Victorian seaside town', 'IOW music Festival' and 'Carnival'
(Ryde is home to the longest running British Carnival)

Between the 1950's and the 1980's, the heyday of British holidaying, Ryde had bandstands along its seafront. The depression in the 80's caused coastal town deprivation, which we are still recovering from today and, sadly, the old iconic bandstands were demolished. In more recent years there has been a renewed interest in 'Staycations' and revitalising and regenerating British seaside holidaying and, moreover, there is growing demand from the Ryde community to reinstate the Bandstands! It has also been identified as a current aim within the Ryde Town Council's Strategic Town Place Plan.

To get the ball rolling, Monkton Arts commissioned local artist and architect Karl Stedman to design a bandstand for Western Gardens to rejuvenate the culture, joy and intrigue associated with our gateway town of Ryde.

Karl presented a set of sensitively produced designs based on three iconic themes: 'Victorian Seaside', 'Carnival' and 'IOW Festival'; all themes associated with Ryde and the Isle of Wight's burgeoning cultural past, present and future.

We fell in love with them all and now want to work with all the agencies involved to make this a reality and bring the bandstands back, not only to Western Gardens but also Eastern Gardens and Appley as well as a forth Pop– Up bandstand which can positioned anywhere in town for any event.

Engineering in Monkton Village, Ryde

This area of Ryde was once famous for innovative engineering with John Ackroyd at the heart of the scene. He helped to develop the first designs for the hovercraft, the first electric car and Richard Nobel's fastest car in the world, TRUST and Blue Bird, as well as the pod Richard Branson flew round the world in and the balloon at the Beijing Olympics! This area was also home to the iconic The Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite Car. With that sort of skill and construction still hidden within the Monkton village area of Ryde, we wanted to keep it local. We have asked a local engineer and artist, Chris Horne, of Island Composites (who was brought up learning alongside John Ackroyd about the importance of perfection and high quality) to provide a quotation to carry out the project.

Chris has quoted £10,000 each as an estimate, which is a 5th of the price of standard street furniture of this size and appearance.

Importantly, all of the Bandstands would be able to be dismantled and stored for the winter to save on cleaning and maintenance costs; as well as ensuring that the bandstands could be used as 'pop-up' events venues, benefiting local artists and musicians.

Locations

Western Gardens

Western Gardens is owned by Isle of Wight Council. Monkton Arts has approached IW Council regarding a bandstand on their land and have presented to the Ryde Regeneration Working Group to start the process.

The surrounding area of the interchange is soon to be redeveloped. This could be a chance to enhance the greenspace while directing attention away from transport links and to the cultural and exciting town and community with an events area bandstand.

This bandstand could be slightly bigger with stronger thematical links to the IOW Festival. Most festival goers will pass through this spot each year and it would keep the festival vibe alive all year!

Eastern Gardens

Eastern Gardens has recently been handed back to Ryde Town Council from IW Council. Jenna who is the co-owner of Monkton Arts is also the Deputy Mayor of Ryde and therefore has opened discussions and started the process of plans to have a bandstand back on Eastern Gardens. This will fit perfectly with the busy line up of public social events on the calendar throughout the year in this area.

Appley

Appley Tower is currently under development by Natural Enterprise to get it open again and used by the community. Monkton Arts has won the bid for the lease (as the only organisation to respond to call to propose sustainable future plans for the much loved folly) if funding bids are successful for its restoration and community use.

A bandstand would be a wonderful addition to a developing area and fit with the community plans for the programme of events in this area each year.

POP- UP

We thought a pop-up bandstand for any community use would be a great asset to the town to be used in all social areas of Ryde when events are being organised. This would then be readily available to borrow for any organisations organising anything in or for Ryde. This opens up the possibility of having a bandstand anywhere in Ryde such as Vernon Square, Co-op Square, Schools, The Hight Street, etc...