Sparkle in the Park at Charlton House

The park is sparkling! Our visit to the first night of Sparkle was very impressive, the light installations have been fitted really thoughtfully around the layout of Charlton House grounds.

The trail starts by the Mulberry, and the avenue of trees have been lit up beautifully as you walk through a snow storm and then past installations based on Christmases in Ukraine, St Lucia and Lagos. We loved the Ukrainian stars decorated by local schoolchildren.

At the end of the avenue you turn back towards the House – and can’t miss the glowing giant spheres (sorry, I didn’t note down the artistic reasoning for those, but they are certainly eye-catching!) and beautiful blue and white snowflakes played onto the back of the House.

Of course then you must stop off at the Winter Tavern (Old Library) or Frilly’s for a refreshment break. Nice to see lots of folks doing that last night, together with children who had been to visit Mrs Santa, it was a jolly atmosphere. There is also a charming display of vintage Christmas cards in the glass cases, borrowed from the Archive.

Onwards to the Long Garden – dressed up as you have never seen it before! Our new plants are safe, the beds were neatly roped off and the all the light sculptures were on the lawn.

Next stop is “Lightweight”, a large scale snow dome. You can have your photo taken in a side booth and then it comes up as a face on one of the figures in the snow dome. A bit spooky actually, but the kids seemed to be enjoying it!

After this, you find yourself at the funfair and street food stalls. We have tested, and can thoroughly recommend Bonnie & Rose for a warming apple drink (warming because it is hot and also contains a nice slug of gin!). https://www.instagram.com/bonnieandrosebar/

Sparkle is on daily from 4.30pm until Sunday Dec 1st, do visit!

Kathy A