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

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

city centre in south-west

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. 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 Mayflower Leisure Centre and

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.

Stadium, which is home to the Plymouth Argyle Football Club.

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 run by Plymouth Active (Previously Everyone Active) in partnership with Plymouth City Council. Its facilities include a family leisure pool, a climbing wall, an eight-lane ...

) 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

{{Coord, 50, 23, 8.74, N, 4, 9, 5.2, W, display=title, type:landmark_region:GB-PLY Geography of Plymouth, Devon Urban public parks in the United Kingdom Parks and open spaces in Devon