£2m Shoreditch Park improvements approved
Construction work is set to start later this year on a £2m project to improve Shoreditch Park for local residents.
The plans for the park, which were approved at the Council’s planning committee last month, include a refurbished children’s play area, new outdoor gym, multi-use games area, beach volleyball court, and work to enhance the park’s accessibility, biodiversity and sustainability.
They follow two years of consultation and engagement with local people, in which 1,600 people told the Council how they’d like the park improved.
Final plans have now been developed by the Council and landscape architects LUC.
Existing play equipment in the park is set to be replaced by a new play area next to Rushton Street with a tower and mound, sand pit with sand play pieces, swings (including basket and accessible swings with rigid backs), slides (including a wide slide for two people), more trees, an inclusive roundabout, flush with the ground with space for wheelchair users, shade and seating areas.
A new sports plaza with a new beach volleyball court, a multi-use games area, table tennis tables, new outdoor gym, trees and a seating area will be located in the south of the park, next to the adventure playground.
Dorothy Thurtle Gardens, south of the Britannia Leisure Centre, will get a makeover, with new planting, pathways and a play trail. Additional benches will be provided along pathways and old benches will be replaced.
Throughout the park, grass will be resown to improve the informal sports pitch, Dorothy Thurtle Gardens and the play area. Relaxed grass mowing in certain areas of the park, rain gardens, permeable surfaces, hedges, log piles, a wildflower meadow and planting will all help to enhance the park's biodiversity, improve drainage and mitigate against climate change induced flash flooding.
I’m really excited about these plans, which will keep Shoreditch Park at the heart of the community for generations to come.
So many residents told us what they’d like to see, which is now reflected in the ambitious plans for a new play area, sports plaza and crucial biodiversity and sustainability improvements.
We’re committed to investing in Hackney, and its future, with this improvement project sitting alongside investment in the Shoreditch Park Adventure Playground and the new Britannia Leisure Centre, on the edge of Shoreditch Park, which includes two Changing Places and a cafe and toilets serving the park. Through these investments we are seeking to establish wider access to facilities that will help us in our mission to make the area a place for everyone.