Cleethorpes Pier Gardens

Pier Gardens is a Victorian, traffic-free, linear park raised above the Central Promenade which runs along the length of Cleethorpes town centre. Opened in 1885, its location is at the heart of the resort and the scope for re-development is vast.

The park is a hidden and an underutilised gem of a public green space that could offer so much more. The area for regeneration presents a unique opportunity to create a space that will become an attraction for residents and visitors alike.

Stretching from Sea Road to the Memorial Gate, there is opportunity to build on the current leisure offer within the existing linear park and provide a variety of attractions all within a new improved setting for the public that celebrates its coastal location.

The plan is to regenerate Pier Gardens, retaining the Victorian heritage and feel, but incorporating various new activities. In the Masterplan consultation carried out and developed by Hemingway Design in 2022, people wanted to see more made of the gardens, with additional seating, planting to increase biodiversity, and improved areas for children’s play, events and performances, and spaces for reflection and contemplation. There is opportunity to expand and enhance the current offer.

North East Lincolnshire Council has been awarded £18.4m of Levelling Up Funding (LUF) to transform Cleethorpes seafront: regenerating Pier Gardens, reintroducing the historic Market Place and delivering a multi-use, tourism-focused landmark building on Sea Road. The three projects will enhance key assets that support the whole community, creating opportunities, and making it more attractive to a broader selection of local people.

July 17 – Designs for Cleethorpes projects approved to move to the next stage

Site Layout

Gateway Plaza
Flexible Space
Water Play
Play Structures
Terraced Play
Education & Wellbeing
Quiet Reflection
Memorial Area

Arrival Zone and Performance Zone

The call out shown here for the zone is designed to show how the space can be used flexibly and is able to host a mix of events and uses including larger scale activities such as small music concerts or theatre performances.

The Northern arrival space will provide a high-quality new gateway into Pier Gardens, acting as transitional zones between the town centre and the gardens, as well as becoming a gateway to the new Sea Road Building. Materials, street furniture, wayfinding and planting schemes in this area will reflect the park’s new character and signal the users arrival at Pier Garden

The Events Zone will reflect Cleethorpes’ history of seaside shows and entertainment and provide the setting for a changing programme of events. This area will provide flexibility and will support all the other areas of the park. The proposed lawns will become areas of play, seating and community gathering. This space will provide dedicated facilities for the local skating community that are sensitively designed to sit within the wider landscape design.

Play and Recreation

Play is the core attraction for Pier Gardens and should be suitable for all age ranges and all abilities at all times of the year. Areas shown within this call-out include the proposed waterplay area to the left and the adjacent structural play area within the existing mature tree canopy.

Facilities should encourage creativity, risk taking, cooperation, exercise, and coordination.

Proposals are not be the traditional off-the-shelf generic slides, swings and roundabouts but will be of the scale, size and quality to make a statement while complementing the wider design language for the site. The equipment will be features in their own right and contribute the new character of the gardens and sense of place. Materials will be appropriate to the location and incorporate timber and natural stone alongside naturalistic and native planting schemes influenced by local habitat types and especially the natural character of South Beach.

Proposals divide the play zone into areas:

Water & Sand:

This area will provide a unique setting for children to play creatively together. Tiered rock formations will provide several opportunities for interactive water-play and include hand operated pumps for users to move water around the site, as well as interactive water jets. Surrounding sand pits respond to the gardens coastal setting and provide an interactive surface for play. The landscape of this area will be designed to playable landscape even in winter months.

Structural Play:

The existing trees will be incorporated into the design through raised play structures set within the canopies. The design and arrangement of these structures will exploit their raised nature to include viewing points. Timber is the preferred choice of material for all play elements to continue the sites natural aesthetic.

Terraced Seating and Play

The currently underutilised grass banks either side of the water garden can be made usable through the introduction of simple terracing and an exciting extension of the adjacent play zone.

Proposals are to introduce simple terracing within the underutilised grass bank between the water garden and Jade’s Ice Cream Parlour, to provide an accessible viewpoint offering 180-degree unbroken vistas of the beach and Humber Estuary. Small stone retaining walls will create a series of terraced lawn areas with wheelchair accessible areas at the lower level. The terraces will also incorporate planting schemes influenced by local habitat types and especially the natural character of South Beach. Perennial grasses will be used to create sand dune planting to link in with the context of the site and provide a playful, dynamic that move and changes with the season.

The topography provides exciting opportunities for play. Proposals are to utilise the adjacent grass bank to incorporate challenging slides
and climbing features without the need for high structures.

Education and Wellbeing

Year round facilities for the local community are a key part of our vision for the site. The inclusion of accessible gym equipment and flexible education areas provides a more local, community focus to this zone.

Health, sustainability and education are key priorities for our vision for Pier Gardens and our spaces must prioritise the mental and physical well being of the community.

This zone proposes uses that are focused towards local residents and supporting them to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.

The ‘rooms’ within this zone provide the opportunity for outdoor gym and physical exercise equipment benefiting from a level of privacy and separation from the wider site.

These spaces also provide opportunities to promote education about the area and park itself. A key message from the consultation was providing a space for local schools, nurseries and community groups to use. This zone incorporates and area with terraced seating that could be used as an outdoor classroom.

Reflection and Memorial Zone

These zones provide an area for relaxation and contemplation – seating set within naturalistic planting schemes providing year round interest – colour and smells.
Memorial plaza is a flexible space that creates a suitable setting for medium sized gatherings during memorial events.

Acting as a bookend to the Northern Arrival Space and Performance Zone, the southern Reflection Zone is located next to the Cenotaph and the Armed Forces Memorial Gate.

The Reflection Zone consists of two sub areas:

The memorial plaza is a new flexible plaza with new improved access from Alexandra Road. This area will cater for large groups during remembrance events and provide an improved setting for the Striker Memorial and the new Naval memorial. The space will include natural stone paving and be fully Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant to ensure there are no hazards for users of limited ability.
The adjacent Reflection Gardens will be separated from the memorial plaza through soft landscape and provide a series of more intimate spaces for contemplation and reflection within a quiet garden setting.

Considerations and Strategies

The existing trees within Pier Gardens are of significant importance to the design ethos for the site. We are fortunate to have large, healthy mature specimens to incorporate within our design to offer scale, setting and excitement to larger proposed elements such as the play structures.

Our strategy for the site is to retain as many of these key larger specimens as possible and ensure that they are incorporated within the design ethos. Where trees have been removed this is to open up views in key areas, facilitate elements of our design or to benefit the wider health of other trees across the site.

Image shows the Pier Gardens area with trees planted.

The servicing strategy for Pier Gardens will be a key part of ensuring that the space is flexible to accommodate events
and markets whilst also ensuring that the space feels safe and welcoming all year round in both the day and evening.

Lighting:

Adequate lighting and CCTV was a recurring message throughout our consultation process. Our design includes both functional and feature lighting throughout the scheme. Functional lighting will ensure all spaces are adequately lit to ensure they feel safe and welcoming even into the evening hours. Feature lighting will be used throughout the site to emphasise key design features, highlight entrances and artwork and provide more ambient lighting to areas such as the reflection seating zone. This lighting may be low level bollards, uplighters to trees and artwork or strip lighting within the paving or furniture.

Servicing for events and markets:

Another key element of the design is the flexibility for Pier Gardens to be able to accommodate a range of events or markets. To ensure this the site will have a network of power and water supplies throughout and the arrival zone and performance zone will have higher capacity power supplies to cater for the potential of larger events.

Another feature proposed is a network of drinking water fountains throughout the site that will be combined with foot wash facilities closer to the proposed sand play elements.

Pier Gardens planting schemes have been inﬂuenced by local habitat types, particularly the natural character of South Beach which hosts a variety of plant species adapted to the coastal environment. This includes hardy grasses, wildﬂowers, and shrubs that support numerous bird species and insects. Native grasses and low-maintenance perennials will feature through the gardens creating sand dune planting to link in with the context of the site and provide a playful, dynamic that moves and changes with the seasons.

Habitats for local wildlife such as insect hotels and bird boxes will be nestled within the proposed planting schemes, which include areas of wildﬂowers and plants that support pollinators.

Interpretative and educational signage informing visitors of the local environment, the importance of the SSSI, and its rich eco-system that supports numerous species of birds, insects and marine life, will feature throughout the gardens.

The public art strategy involves transforming the distinguished CLEETHORPES typography, prominently featured on the existing Sea Road hoardings, into 3D installations dotted throughout the gardens.

The concept uses each letter of CLEETHORPES as a unique installation integrated into the park’s landscape.

These installations would serve and encourage various uses, providing photo, play, skate, learning, relaxing and socialising opportunities, while also promoting and informing visitors about the rich wildlife, history, and culture found within the park and the wider resort.

This approach seeks to encourages exploration, interaction, and engagement from visitors of all ages.

Images show precedents that will inspire future designs.

If there are any accessibility issues, please email projectmanagementteam@nelincs.gov.uk who can provide you with more details on the proposals.