Case study // Chimney View Park, Northfleet

People Feel Comfortable

The park provides a central green space, landscaped gardens, seating areas and attractive planting that encourage people to spend time outdoors. The landscape audit identifies seating locations overlooking planted areas, demonstrating that comfort and enjoyment of the landscape were key design considerations.

People Feel Safe

Ebbsfleet's principles emphasise visibility, surveillance and clear routes. The current improvement proposals seek to remove unwelcoming signage, construction hoardings and physical barriers that can discourage use, helping create a more welcoming and overlooked public space

Spaces for Everyone

Ebbsfleet's principles seek to create inclusive spaces for all ages and abilities. Chimney View Park provides a range of facilities that appeal to different user groups, including informal seating areas, children's play facilities, social spaces, and sports facilities. The park includes benches and resting places and caters for both active and passive recreation.

Easy to Walk, Cycle and Access

The park forms part of the wider Harbour Village movement network and is connected to surrounding streets and neighbourhoods. More recently, proposals have been developed to create an additional entrance from the south to improve accessibility for residents of The Hive, removing barriers and strengthening pedestrian connections into the park.

Garden in the City

The park embodies the Garden City concept through its extensive landscaping, ornamental planting, tree planting and meadow areas. The park is full of ornamental shrub beds and wildflower meadow areas, which really elevate the park and provide a striking impact for visitors. The planting has focused on primarily drought-tolerant planting which seem to be thriving in Ebbsfleet’s dry, chalky conditions, alongside the large swathes of wildflower meadow mix. The use of species-rich grass land and wildflower meadow mix, help transform the former industrial site into a valuable ecological asset.

Design with the Community

The park was designed as a community focal point within Harbour Village and was originally developed following engagement with local people, including a children's design competition that helped shape the park's play offer. The park has been conceived as a space that serves both new and existing residents.

Places to Meet, Exercise and Play

This is one of the park's strongest attributes. The park includes:

  • A central village green

  • Basketball court

  • Table tennis tables

  • Climbing equipment

  • Trim trail features

  • Swings and balancing equipment

  • Informal open space

These facilities support social interaction, active recreation and healthy lifestyles, directly aligning with Ebbsfleet's principle of providing places to meet, exercise and play.

Environmental Net Gain and Biodiversity

Ebbsfleet's park principles seek to maximise environmental value and biodiversity. The Harbour Village landscape strategy includes species-rich grasslands, diverse planting communities and a good level of tree planting. The size of the planting has also made a big impact, using larger pot sizes has created a planting palette that feels very established and impactful.

Characterful Places

A key Ebbsfleet principle is creating places rooted in their local context and history. Chimney View Park responds directly to Northfleet's industrial heritage, with its name and wider development drawing inspiration from the former cement works and historic chimney structures that once dominated the landscape. The park therefore contributes to a distinctive sense of place rather than being a generic neighbourhood green space.

Securing Effective Place-Keeping

Although some maintenance issues were identified in the 2026 landscape audit, the existence of a formal audit process demonstrates active stewardship and management. Recommendations regarding planting replacement, play equipment, meadows, trees and litter management show an ongoing commitment to maintaining quality over time.

Chimney View Park is a neighbourhood park located within the Harbour Village development at Northfleet, forming part of the wider Ebbsfleet Garden City vision. The park was designed as the principal public open space for the first phase of Harbour Village and provides a focal point for recreation, play, nature, and community activity. It takes its name from the area's industrial heritage, the former cement works that once occupied the site.

The park provides a welcoming landscape that combines play, sport, biodiversity, and community space. As a focal point for both recreation and social interaction, Chimney View Park exemplifies Ebbsfleet Garden City's ambition to place green infrastructure and community wellbeing at the centre of new development.