“And they all go hand-in-hand…”

A podcast, pictures and Ward Park life…

The pergola at Bangor’s Ward Park

In the autumn of 2025 Little Bangor Stories was invited to take part in the Apects Festival during Late Night Art Bangor. It was an evening of enjoying some old film clips and recalling memories and the result is a few pages back on this website.

During that event, one of the people who took part was Gary McMahon, whose recollections prompted an interview all to himself in which he talked about his “little points of colour” in his memories - which then spurred him on to draw and paint these remembered visions of times and places gone by.

Scoot like a child on the terrifyingly-high slide in the old playground at Ward Park to Late Night Art in May 2026 when the much-loved cafe Park Life invited him to exhibit his work and LBS to chat to passers-by about our little city-centre park. We were completing the creative circle!

Ward Park was gifted to the people of Bangor in the early 20th century by the Ward family who built Bangor Castle and planted Castle Park. It had been a brickworks but landscapers transformed the space with ponds, bridges and lawns and it was opened to the public around 1910.

Since then it became the site of the Bangor War Memorial and the German U-boat deck gun; an air-raid shelter that now houses Park Life, flocks of ducks, geese, budgies, peacocks and fancy hens have made it their home; the grounds and grass see tennis matches, lawn bowls tournaments, school sports and softball games; the paths host a Park Run; it boasts a brand-new play park and a sensory garden and of course, every summer the Open House Festival Picnic in the Park Sunday afternoon music!

My thanks to all who stopped to chat and Park Life for the invitation to join May’s Late Night Art. Gary’s work will be on display in this cool little cafe until the end of June.

The extension to Bangor library has views over the pond and pergola; the sensory garden which replaced the old playground; a moor hen is just one of the wild birds you might see and Gary’s depiction of his memory of the Ballyholme beach diving boards on display at Park Life.