Plymouth's Central Park is situated to the north-east of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

city centre in south-west

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Covering 68 hectares, Central Park is the largest park in Plymouth. It was created in 1928 with the aim to improve the health of the city's residents. The park is trust land; developments on the land must be for the purpose of leisure activities.

Activities and facilities

The park has multiple sports and recreation facilities such as football, rugby, and cricket pitches, as well as a golf course, a bowling green, a baseball diamond, and the Central Park Leisure Pools. It is also known for the Plymouth Life Centre and

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in the area of Milehouse, Plymouth, Devon, England. With a capacity of 17,900, the ground has been the home of Plymouth Argyle Football Club since 1903, and was also used between 1900 and 1903 by Argyle Athlet ...

Stadium, which is home to the Plymouth Argyle Football Club.The Home Park Story
Greens on Screen. Retrieved 16 January 2010.

History

In 1923, the land for the park, previously used for agriculture, was sold cheaply to the City Council on the condition that it was to remain a public open space. A plan was presented for the space in 1928, and the laying out of the park was approved in 1929. The park opened in 1931 but many of the planned features were never built due to funding shortages. In the mid-1990s, Plymouth Argyle had plans to build a completely new 25,000-seat stadium in the area. These were cancelled in favour of redeveloping Home Park. The playground area, themed on continents of the world, was demolished and rebuilt out of wood in 2018 as part of a £9 million redevelopment project for the park. In 2007 the council opted to demolish the ageing Leisure Pools and Mayflower Leisure Centre rather than refurbish them and replace them with a new larger combined indoor sports complex (

Plymouth Life Centre The Plymouth Life Centre is a leisure centre in Central Park, Plymouth, Devon, England, run by Plymouth Active Leisure (previously Everyone Active) in partnership with Plymouth City Council. Its facilities include a family leisure pool, a cli ...

) with multi-purpose indoor pitches, basketball court, swimming pool and a café among other venues. By 2012 the Mayflower Leisure Centre and the Central Park Leisure Pools had been demolished, and the

was officially opened on Saturday 24 March.

References

{{City of Plymouth Geography of Plymouth, Devon Urban public parks in the United Kingdom Parks and open spaces in Devon