Case Study: Platinum Jubilee Park, Castle Hill, 

Eastern Quarry, Ebbsfleet Garden City  

People Feel Comfortable

The park includes a variety of spaces designed for relaxation and enjoyment, including:

  • Amenity lawns for picnics and informal recreation

  • Lakeside spaces

  • Plazas and seating areas

  • Landscaped terraces

  • Viewpoints overlooking the lakes and chalk cliffs

The design creates opportunities both for active use and quiet enjoyment of the landscape.

People Feel Safe

The design places activity areas, paths and seating in visible locations with good natural surveillance. The landscape strategy specifically references spaces for young people that are overlooked and include multiple entry and exit points, helping users feel secure while encouraging independent use of the park.

Spaces for Everyone

The park caters for a wide range of users by providing:

  • Walking routes

  • Cycling routes

  • Play spaces

  • Informal recreation lawns

  • Seating and gathering areas

  • Waterside areas

  • Event spaces

The landscape strategy includes amenities for children, families, older residents and young people, creating opportunities for both active and passive recreation.

Easy to Walk, Cycle and Access

One of the park's greatest strengths is connectivity.

The landscape strategy identifies:

  • Dedicated cycle routes

  • Shared walking and cycling routes

  • Connections to Fastrack

  • Links to Castle Hill Village Green

  • Connections to schools and neighbourhood spaces

  • Routes connecting to the lakes and wider green infrastructure network

These connections encourage walking and cycling and make the park easily accessible from surrounding communities.

Garden in the City

The park strongly reflects Garden City principles through its extensive green infrastructure and landscape-led design.

Key features include:

  • Large areas of open green space

  • Lakes and waterside landscapes

  • Tree planting

  • Amenity grassland

  • Habitat corridors

  • Strong visual connections to the chalk cliffs

The landscape design ensures that nature is integrated into everyday life rather than being separated from residential areas.

Design with the Community

The park forms the centrepiece of the Castle Hill neighbourhood and is closely connected to nearby community facilities, schools, public spaces and future community infrastructure. The surrounding public realm has been designed to support community gatherings, events and day-to-day social interaction, ensuring that the park functions as a civic space as well as a recreational destination.

Places to Meet, Exercise and Play

This is one of the park's defining characteristics.

The design includes:

  • Formal play facilities

  • Open lawns for informal games

  • Walking and cycling routes

  • Events spaces

  • Gathering plazas

  • Community meeting spaces nearby

The landscape strategy also identifies several event locations within walking distance, helping support community festivals, outdoor activities and neighbourhood events.

Environmental Net Gain and Biodiversity

The park contributes significantly to Ebbsfleet's environmental ambitions by providing a substantial area of green infrastructure and habitat creation. The lakes, planting, swales and landscape corridors support ecological enhancement while also delivering recreational value.

Characterful Places

The park's greatest achievement is its strong sense of place.

The design is rooted in the unique character of Castle Hill through:

  • Dramatic views to the chalk cliffs

  • View corridors across the park

  • The lakeside setting

  • Design references to local geology through "chalk striations"

  • Strong landscape structure that reflects the area's historic landscape character

Rather than being a generic neighbourhood park, it is a place that could only exist in Ebbsfleet.

Castle Hill Platinum Jubilee Park is one of the strongest examples within the Garden City of meeting all of Ebbsfleet’s Park Principles. It combines landscape, recreation, biodiversity, movement, community activity and local identity all in a single destination park. The park strongly aligns with many of the core principles adopted across Ebbsfleet.

It provides high-quality spaces for recreation, play, walking and cycling, while also supporting biodiversity, community activity and health and wellbeing. The park's strong landscape character, lakeside setting and dramatic views towards the chalk cliffs create a memorable and distinctive destination. Its excellent connectivity, accessible design and range of facilities ensure that it serves residents of all ages, making it one of Ebbsfleet Garden City's flagship public parks.