Here, Queen Elizabeth Park has been transformed into a chess set – a reference to Alice Through the Looking Glass, in which Alice finds herself once again in a fantastical world, this time one commanded by a chess board, the pieces that inhabit it and the rules of the game that govern them.
In the years between the publication of Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, Lewis Carroll taught Alice Liddell (the real Alice, for whom he originally wrote the story) to play chess. Just as a pack of playing cards led the casting for the main characters in the first book, here the chess pieces guide the story as Alice finds herself caught in the midst of a game.
In Bermuda Wonderland, several other landmarks from Pembroke Parish are transported to the park – including the Perot Post Office (named after William Bennet Perot, who issued Bermuda’s first postage stamp in 1848), and a column from Fort Hamilton – where they sit nestled amongst the grassy squares.