St Paul's Park

Visitor Information

Location

St Paul's Park is located behind St Paul’s Church, Portland Square, St Paul’s, Bristol BS2 8SA

Accessibility

Access to St. Paul's Park is from Portland Square via the footpath beside St Paul’s Church, Lemon Lane and Princes Street via footpath. 

Opening hours

St. Paul's Park is open all year round.

Events

St Paul's Park hosts a range of regular events and activities. Large events in the park include The Bristol Do held in September, which attracts audiences of 12 000 people and the spoken word stage during St Paul's Carnival. A range of smaller events and activities take place in the park including workshops and performance by Circomedia and an annual community fun day organised by local residents.

View a video of The Bristol Do in St Paul's Park and Portland Square.

Visitor Facilities

• specialist play equipment and seating within a fenced area
• basketball hoop
• climbing wall
• 'twin-fly' equipment
• ramp and dish feature for bikes and skateboards
• curved seating steps and space to relax
• a range of planting including six palm trees
• grassed event space with ground anchor points designed for circus performance and training in partnership with Circomedia

Nature and Wildlife

The selection of shrub and groundcovers has been kept simple and robust. Informal native hedge planting at the site boundary invites wildlife, whilst a beech hedge creates a more formal planting edge. Shrub species include Hebe and Choisya Ternata for structure and all year foliage. Scented plants such as lavenders and sage can be found in the play area, and architectural forms of Euphorbia and Phormium create form, scent and colour throughout the park all year. Groundcovers of Hypericum, Vinca Minor and Ferns create all year foliage cover, complemented by additional flowering Lamium and Helleborus species. Wildflowers will swathe the shrub beds and grassed areas for added interest and colour when established. 

Community engagement

St Paul's Community Partnership is a resident led group working together with voluntary, statutory, and commercial organisations towards improving the overall quality of life in St Paul's. The partnership has a Parks sub-group which is working with Parks and Estates to improve all the green spaces in the area and provide high quality, local parks and play areas for all members of the community.

Special designations/awards

• Green Flag Award - an award which recognises and rewards the best green spaces in the country
• LGN Street Design Award 2008- Urban Green Space winner
• Voscur Award 2009 - Thanks for Supporting the Voluntary Sector Award