Central Park is the premier

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...

, Lincolnshire, England.

History

The park was opened as part of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

to celebrate the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The children's play areas used to feature a

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

and there was a paddling pool.

Location

North Lincolnshire Council North Lincolnshire Council is the local authority of North Lincolnshire, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the function ...

, the owner, is based in the Civic Centre at the park and

North Lindsey College North Lindsey College is a further education college in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England, situated on the A18. Structure North Lindsey College is an associate college of the University of Lincoln providing a range of further education a ...

is adjacent.

Facilities

There are formal gardens in front of the Civic Centre and a boulevard that is used by pedestrians and cyclists to cross the park between a leisure centre and

. There is a children's play area, cafe and a splashpad wet play area. The pods

leisure centre A leisure centre, sports centre, or recreation centre is a purpose-built building or site, usually owned and provided by the local government authority, where people can engage in a variety of sports and exercise, and keep fit. Typical facilit ...

is based at the park offering indoor sports and swimming pools. Scunthorpe

Parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for runners, walkers and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across five continents. Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinto ...

takes place in the park every Saturday morning at 9am, the run is 5 km in length and mostly on the park's tarmac footpaths. The park won a

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

in 2017.

Fountain garden

The centre piece of the park is the fountain garden which is in the middle of a large green open space with footpaths and a variety of specimen trees and flowers.

References

{{reflist Parks and open spaces in Lincolnshire Scunthorpe