A boating lake, a glass Palm House and the villas on the roads around it, where the BBC's The War of the Worlds and Netflix's The Irregulars both filmed.
What Sefton Park looks like
A curved lake runs through the middle of Sefton Park, its banks planted with purple rhododendrons and a run of yellow laburnum, overhung by mature trees. Paths loop around the water and cross open meadow beyond the tree line, wide enough to hold sky in an aerial shot.
The stands on a rise above the lake, a three tier glass dome on a low brick base with slender white painted ironwork, dating from 1896. Formal beds and a ring of trees surround it, and paths approach from every side.
Ullet Road runs along the park's eastern edge, curving past red brick and sandstone villas set behind low walls and hedges. Most date from the 1870s to the 1890s, two and three storeys, detached or semi-detached. The faces the park from the same road, in red Ruabon brick with sandstone dressings. It was completed in 1899. An entrance screen and stone gatepiers on Ullet Road, dating from around the 1870s, mark one way into the park.
A bronze statue of William Rathbone stands on a granite plinth in the open meadow south of the Palm House, facing a path lined with benches. Near the lake's north end, a bronze fountain topped by a winged figure rises from an octagonal stone base, a full size replica of the Piccadilly Circus memorial installed in 1932.
Shot in Sefton Park
The Palm House doubled as an astronomer's observatory in BBC One's The War of the Worlds. Netflix's The Irregulars also filmed inside it.
The Palm House
Two Liverpool set dramas used the same glass dome: an astronomer's observatory for The War of the Worlds, an unconfirmed scene for The Irregulars.
The War of the Worlds, 2019
The Palm House
Played Ogilvy's observatory, Edwardian London, early 1900s
Robert Carlyle plays Ogilvy, the astronomer who shows Amy and George the night sky from the octagon at the centre of the Palm House. The scene stands in for an observatory in Edwardian London, in the opening episode of BBC One's The War of the Worlds, first broadcast 17 November 2019. Street View
The Irregulars, 2021
Netflix's The Irregulars also used the Palm House as a filming location, alongside St George's Hall and St George's Plateau elsewhere in Liverpool. The production does not identify which scene was shot there.
What Sefton Park can double for
Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York
Prospect Park has the same combination of an open meadow, a boating lake and a ring of grand houses along its western edge, laid out in the same landscape park era as Sefton Park. Both parks curve around water with paths that loop back toward the trees. Prospect Park West's brownstone terraces are denser and taller than the detached villas around Sefton Park, so a tight frame on the meadow and lake works better than a wide one that catches the skyline. Try searching boating lake and meadow now.
Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California
The Conservatory of Flowers is a domed Victorian glasshouse from the same era as Sefton Park's Palm House, wood framed rather than iron but a similar silhouette against the trees around it. A tight shot on the dome alone can pass for either building. The Conservatory's wood frame is painted white rather than glazed in dark ironwork. Its surrounding planting is denser and more tropical, so a wide shot that includes the garden beds gives the location away. Try searching domed Victorian glasshouse now.
Battersea Park in London, England
Battersea Park has the same shape as Sefton Park, a boating lake ringed by trees and paths, with grand houses along one side of the park facing in. Nobody has documented a production using it as a double for another park, but the two read alike on camera. Battersea's lake is more formally edged in stone than Sefton Park's. Its own landmark building, the Pump House, is a converted Victorian pumping station rather than a glasshouse. A wide shot that includes it would give the location away. Try searching boating lake ringed by trees now.
