There's a vogue nowadays for philanthropic intervention in public affairs. This is not a new thing, in 1860 Zacchariah Charles Pearson donated a few acres of land in west Hull for a public park. Good for him you say; well up to a point. You see he kept a ring of land surrounding the park for his own speculative building venture and got the people of Hull to pay for a park in the middle. His business and political acumen left him when he led a doomed venture trying to run guns and ammunition to the Confederacy in the US civil war; he lost everything and ended his days practically penniless in a house on Pearson Park. I have a vague memory of some Confederate followers tracing down his grave in Springbank cemetery and renovating it, but that may just be my mind going.
The top picture shows the lake and a Victorian hothouse/conservatory which has a few fishes in tanks and some birds in cages. The colourful blob on the right is, I'm afraid, yet another toad. Below is a detail of the obelisk memorial to old Zacc.
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