Herne Bay Memorial Park. — Attraction in Canterbury

As one of the closest parks available and so centrally located in town, we use this very regularly, but it does leave much to be desired. A large bumpy grassy field dominates and seems to serve little purpose. Thankfully around the actual memorial monument there are nicely planted flower beds. When in bloom this is pleasant, but unfortunately the closed off areas are also regularly used by youth blowing, playing loud music, or people drinking. When happening upon this with children or out for a stroll it really detracts from the experience. Other good services include fenced off tennis grounds, a pond, and playground. All great or have but certainly not the most qualitative around, neither in a great state, nor very clean and lacking good quality facilities or truly adventurous play options. The whole place feels somewhat stark and austere for most of the year, while there is little shade in the flat grounds when the sun is out. The pond is nice but visibly dirty most of the time and not well maintained. The communal gardens are amice touch, but there is little of them and typically closed off to the public. This could be true destination green for the town and in the bare bones is a great asset to have, but it is crying out for some qualitative and imaginative investment of both public funds and with that true communal ownership. It also should become better integrated into the commercial town centre. The unfortunate way the through roads and nasty car parking have both been given priority in all preceding development schemes mean there is little coherence and the layout and flow is not enticing from the seafront and shopping streets, all the way to the station. Crucially, though, it could be, so I hold out hope. It is used by many on a regular basis regardless mainly due to its very central location. Hopefully this means it will be maintained as green and leisure infrastructure for the town going into the future, but I mainly hold out...

During the day this park is well used by many types of people from parents and kids using the play equipment in the safely enclosed area to tennis players in the well kept courts (open from Easter to late summer), dog walkers, electric boat hobbyists and people feeding ducks on the pond and those just out for a stroll or passing through. It's pleasant and well used space. Once night falls and the families are in for the night and there's significantly less people around the park somehow just feels ominous. I wouldn't want to walk through it alone even though there are some CCTV cameras. I don't think it's an especially rough or dangerous place it's just the world we find ourselves in...

If you’re visiting for the fun fair make sure you read the small print we traveled from sturry with our children they were all very exited to enjoy the fair and it was closed 🤦 the park itself looks good and the pond looked lovely and a nice walk for the dog but again the fair was closed and I was very disappointed.. I tried calling through the day to find out about bringing the dog but no answer… I will be coming back tomorrow to see if it is open !! Not sure why they would close for 2 days during the summer holidays especially when they are only...