Gillingham Park

The 16 acre park represents the Councils only Edwardian Municipal Park and is listed as Grade 2 status (of County/local interest and importance) within The Kent Gardens Compendium.

What Gilingham Park offers

The park offers visitors:

• a circular walk with sculpture trail
• children's play area
• winter garden
• herbaceous beds
• the opportunity to relax in a parkland setting

The park also plays host to the Will Adams Festival each year.

Historic background

The ground now occupied by Gillingham Park was until 1901 pastureland owned by Brasenose College, Oxford and leased for sheep grazing to a Councillor Sheepwash.

In December 1901 the land was purchased by Gillingham Borough Council who wished to create a public park for the expanding population. The design featured a circular walk surrounding a large grass field for recreation purposes; the field’s boundary was planted with deciduous trees and serpentine paths led to a formal ‘bedded’ area adjacent to the ‘mock Tudor’ Keepers Lodge on Canterbury Street.

The layout also included a nursery for growing the park’s plants, plus a two storey bandstand, features typical of an early Edwardian public park. Gillingham Park was formally opened to the public by the Mayor of Gillingham in a grand ceremony on July 25th 1906. The original layout of paths, beds and green from 1906 still exist at Gillingham Park, as do the original tree plantings.

Canterbury Street
Gillingham
Kent
ME7 5LA

• Children's play area
• Circular walk
• Sculpture trail
• Winter garden
• Herbaceous beds