Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Breaks Up With Prescott Park ‘Love Wall’

🔴 Locks are attached to the wall in Portsmouth's Prescott Park as a symbol of love

🔴 They are periodically removed because of weight concerns

🔴 Flags and signs will also be discouraged in the future

It appears a sign of true love in Portsmouth may going away for good.

For years, people have attached locks to the fence in Prescott Park on the end near Memorial Bridge, throwing away the key as a symbol of forever-lasting love.

In reality, the city will periodically cut the locks off what is sometimes called the "love wall" to make sure the fence doesn't become weighted down and fall into the river. But then more locks go up, and the cycle repeats.

At Tuesday's city council meeting, City Manager Karen Conrad said that during a review of uses of the public forum area of Prescott Park, attaching locks will be discouraged going forward.

The area is designated within the public "in which individuals may engage in expressive activities," according to the city website.

"What we are concerned about is the use of the fence and city property in that area. So in a sense we are taking back the fence. This may not meet with great excitement from many people, but we're going to remove the locks from the fence," city manager Karen Conrad said during the meeting. "In addition, we will remove any signage that would include bunting, flags, anything that might be affixed to municipal property."

"Oh no," said an unidentified voice in the room.

According to a notice from the city, a sign will go up prohibiting anything from being put on the fence, including more locks.

The idea of putting locks on fences as a romantic gesture dates back to World War I, but have proliferated during the 2000s after being done in a book called "I Want You" that became a movie in 2007. A love lock was also attached to a bridge at the end of the 2013 movie Now You See Me.

Photo courtesy Make a Day Of It New England and MyTraveligKids.com

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH