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✨ Stanley Park’s Glasshouse: A Legacy in Glass and Stone 🌿

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The striking Isla Gladstone Conservatory in Liverpool’s Stanley Park is more than just a Victorian treasure—it’s a window into a complex past. Designed by celebrated architect Edward Kemp, the conservatory was restored and renamed after Isla Gladstone, whose family fortune had historical ties to slavery.

This elegant dome of iron and glass tells a layered story: one of innovation and beauty, but also of empire, exploitation, and reckoning.

Explore Liverpool’s hidden histories in my novels Water Street and The Americans of Abercromby Square—where past and present collide.

📚 Water Street: https://amzn.to/3pZhY7B
📚 The Americans of Abercromby Square: https://amzn.to/3zvK7oR

StanleyPark #IslaGladstone #LiverpoolHistory #VictorianArchitecture #HiddenHistories #SlaveryAndEmpire #EdwardKemp #Glasshouse #WaterStreetNovel #AmericansOfAbercrombySquare #JPMaxwellBooks #HistoricalFictionUK

john

With a background ranging from studying Russian at University College London to working for a Californian Software company and running a newspaper kiosk, JP Maxwell settled back in Liverpool in 2001 and now teaches Screenwriting and Digital Writing at Liverpool John Moores University. Although fictional, his writing directly links to an Irish and African family history in the port city and specifically Toxteth since the early 1800s. In addition to WATER STREET, due to be published by BK Fiction, and based upon Liverpool’s clandestine involvement in the American Civil War, he is writing a spy/crime novel CAMPER VAN WOMAN based upon his adventures in Eastern Europe and 1980s Toxteth. An award-winning filmmaker, JP has produced or directed 16 short films and 3 feature films since 1998, acclaimed at such festivals as Karlovy Vary, Rome, BFI London Film Festival and commercially distributed, including network broadcasts on BBC Television.

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