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Notting Hill love seat is now WA treasure

A carved park bench proved to be a key prop in the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill.

In the film, the inscription on it prompted Julia Roberts to make a passionate and dramatic declaration about love with lovesick Hugh Grant looking on.

So how did that bench end up in a Perth garden?

Most of the story was revealed by _Inside Cover _seven years ago when the owner agreed to speak if his identity was kept secret.

"I acquired it and presented it as a birthday gift for someone who was very special to me at the time," he said.

"The key link being the line in the movie where Julia Roberts says, 'Some people do spend their whole lives together', and at the end of the film she and Hugh Grant fall in love for ever."

But unlike the movies, this affair did not have a happy ending.

"Sadly, this was not to be in my case," the man said, as he confided that the relationship ended.

"As such, I thought it no longer appropriate that the bench remain with me, so I had this idea to donate it to the City of Perth for Queens Gardens, which has somewhat of a feel of the park in the Notting Hill movie.

"They happily accepted. I am pleased that the bench is being used by lovers and romantics because this is what I had hoped.

"It certainly had a strong meaning for me at the time and so I am warmed that it has become a special place for others."

The only hint to the man's identity could be etched in the back of the bench: "Rodd & Nicole 2002".

Kent Acott