Queen's Garden The private gardens of the residents of Palmyra Square were purchased to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Warrington Borough Council on 3rd April 1897 and the Diamond Jubilee (or 60th anniversary) of Queen Victoria's reign. Queen's Gardens opened as a public park on 17 Ocotber 1898 ands in 1907 the statue of Lt. Colonel McCarthy O'Leary was unveiled on 21 February 1907 to commemorate local men killed in the Boer War in South Africa.