The Ornamental Gardens of The Pavilion is a wonderful public space in the centre of the town, used widely by the townsfolk and visitors it has a tranquility and a Victorian beauty with lakes and mature trees that all can enjoy whilst walking, or just sitting passing the time of day, there is an abundance of seating on the Promenade and in various locations around the gardens, with some fine ornemental lakes and the River Wye meandering through over waterfalls and under many ornate original Victorian bridges, this is all offset with a modern children's play area, crazy golf course and a miniture railway for all the family to enjoy, this has all been improved with a recent refurbishment helped by a lottery grant of over 3 million pounds, certainly a place to visit whilst in town.

The Pavilion Gardens as we see today were a very different place in the 1860s when the main part of the area was still the Garden for Buxton Hall, (now The Old Hall Hotel) owned at that time by Lord George Cavendish The 7th Duke of Devonshire, who in 1869 gave as a gift twelve acres of the garden in front of the Hall, in 1870 The Buxton Improvements Company was formed and this land was to be fenced and an admission be charged to help offset the cost of a regular band, The Pavilion itself was designed by Edward Milner who was a student of the great Victorian designer Sir Joseph Paxton and had an involvement with the rebuilding of The Crystal Palace at Sydenham after the Great Exhibition of 1851, The Gardens, bridges and Bandstands in Buxton were all designed by Edward's son Henry Milner and after a reletively short time from their concept were opened on 10th May 1871.

Since 1871 it is now free to enter the Gardens and they have been extended to 23 acres, with the addition of the boating lake in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the boating lake had the facility for the water level to be lowered by sluice gate to around 12 - 14 inches in the winter to allow skating, this was in addition to the outdoor Skating Rink, which served as a roller skating rink in summer and Curling and Ice Skating in winter, the Buxton Curling Club was affiliated to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club and had over 75 members in 1906, no longer in use the Car Park now stands on this area, in the 1920s top quality grass and hard Tennis Courts were developed and here was held one of the countrys oldest Lawn Tennis Tournements, it attracted many top players of the times and Buxtons Pavilion Gardens is the only place outside Wimbledon where the All England Ladies Double Championships have been held, for many years these lawns also staged The North of England Croquet Championships, sadly these have now gone, this has been a site for recreation since Elizabethean times and no doubt Mary Queen of Scots would have used the Hall Gardens during her visits here to Buxton between 1573 and 1584.