preston park

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Preston Park

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Vegetable growing in Preston Park

Preston Park the largest urban park in the city. Whether you want to take part in sports or sit and enjoy a picnic on a summer’s day, Preston Park is the place for you. Because of its size and location the park is also used as a venue for concerts, circuses, fairs, family days and other events.

• Email friendsofprestonpark@gmail.com

Facilities

• Children's playground
• Football pitches (4)
• Cricket fields (2)
• Bowling greens (3) - open to the public on a pay & play basis
• Tennis courts (8)
• Softball pitch (1)
• Rounders & stool ball pitches can be marked out if required
• Multi-sports area
• 500m cycle velodrome
• Cafés (2)
• Toilets
• Healthwalks

Chalet Café, Preston Park

Centre of Preston Park, Brighton, BN1 6HN (01273) 503477

Open: 10am-5pm

Rotunda Café, Preston Park

Preston Road, Brighton, BN1 6HN (01273) 554161

Email the Rotunda cafe

Open: Monday-Friday 9.15am-4pm Saturday and Sunday 9.30am-5pm

The Tile House

The Tile House sells and hires sporting equipment to support sport and leisure activities in the park.

Features and attractions

The park also includes a glorious restored walled garden, rose garden and many fine trees. There are also some interesting buildings such as the Clock Tower (grade two listed), The Rotunda and the Tile House. Don't miss the beautiful Rookery Rock Garden on the other side of the main road.

Preston Park is on English Heritage’s Register of Parks and Gardens of special historic interest.

From the 1950s onwards the flower beds along the Preston Road were used as part of the ‘Gardens of Greeting’ competition. Planting designs for beds were produced by different park’s departments as part of national competition. Today the planting schemes for these flower beds are designed by local schoolchildren, as part of the city’s annual City in Bloom competition.

Preston Park Rotunda and Rose Garden

Situated at the southern end of the park, the Rotunda tea pavilion and the rose garden were both developed during the 1930s. The Rotunda was originally an exhibit at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley and was purchased for the park in 1929.

The rose garden is planted with old English style shrub roses which tougher and more reliable than hybrid teas/Floribunda roses. They are also repeat flowering and fragrant.

• More information on the Preston Park rotunda and rose garden restoration
• 360 degree views of the rose garden

Rookery Rock Garden

Situated on the opposite side of Preston Road to the main park, the Rockery is the largest municipal rock garden in the country. The Rockery is arguably the most bio-diverse garden in the city and also features twisting walkways, streams and waterways.

The garden was originally known as ‘The Rookery’ due to the tall trees in the garden that were home to many rooks. Over time the name mutated into ‘The Rockery’.

Preston Manor’s Walled Garden

Preston Manor’s walled garden is a fine example of its type. A mix of shrubs, flowers, trees and landscape features combine to produce a pleasant atmosphere in keeping with the manor’s elegant interiors. The garden is at present planted in a style influenced by the romantic garden designs of Vita Sackville-West. The garden also contains a pet cemetery dating back to the late nineteenth century.

The Coronation Garden

The Coronation Garden lies at the northern end of the park alongside Preston Manor. The garden was laid out to celebrate the coronation of Elizabeth II and was designed as a scented garden for the blind. The garden contains the famous Preston Twins, the two oldest and largest surviving English Elms in Europe. Experts date the trees at between 250-400 years old.

Green Flag Award

The Green Flag Awards scheme annually recognises the best public parks and green spaces in the country.

Preston Park has been a Green Flag Park for more than a decade and has again been recognised with a Green Flag Award for 2010-11.

Did you know?

Preston Park was Brighton's first and largest planned park. It was brought by Brighton Corporation in 1883 for the sum of £50,000 from Mr William Bennett-Stanford who owned the Preston Manor estate.

The purchase (£50,000) and layout cost (£22,868) was funded by a bequest of £70,000 from a local bookmaker, William Edmund Davies in 1879. The park was formally declared open on 8 November 1884.

Park ranger

Our park rangers take a lead role in education and interpretation events, habitat protection and practical conservation tasks in their areas. They also provide a reassuring uniformed presence in our parks to encourage a sense of security and to provide information.

The ranger for Preston Park is Garry Meyer.

Garry is closely involved with the newly formed Friends of Preston Park, helping to organise activities and events in the park for the local community. Garry is also leading a long-term project to create a woodland walk through the rock garden, working with local volunteers and Community Payback teams.

The rock garden conservation and gardening group meets every Wednesday at 10am, and more volunteers are always welcome.

Contact Cityparks email for more details.

Accessibility

Laid out on a gentle slope the main park areas are accessible via pathways. There are also plenty of benches situated along the paths. The cafés are accessible. The rock garden, cricket pitch and velodrome unfortunately are not accessible due to rough terrain and grass.

There are limited parking spaces in this park and priority use must be given to disabled park visitors. On-street parking is available - the nearest designated accessible bays are on Preston Park Avenue.

Two accessible toilets are available, one in the Chalet café in the centre of the park and one in the Rotunda café at the southern end of the park.

• Cityparks easy access page

Location

Preston Park sits alongside the Preston Road (A23).

The park is easily accessible by car or public transport. View map or visit local bus timetable information.

Contacts and useful links

Our events diary includes events in our parks and public green spaces.

Information on St Peter's Church Preston Park.

For daily maintenance contact Cityparks or telephone (01273) 292929

To book a sports facility, contact Sports Bookings

To organise an event contact the Events Office or call (01273) 292711

The operations manager responsible for Preston Park is Alan Griffiths.