St Ann’s Well Gardens

This important and much loved community park is located around an ancient Saxon Chalybeate, or iron bearing spring. It covers an area of 4.9 hectares. Though relatively small, the park provides a wide range of landscape experiences. The features range from formal lawns and ornamental flowerbeds to wilder conservation areas in an informal landscape well appointed with mature trees. There is also a well-stocked fishpond with a biological filter system. There have been 55 different species of birds recorded in the park at various stages in the year. Given the high local housing density the park provides an important space for sustaining the quality of daily life in the area, providing an attractive place to walk and sit, somewhere to meet for older people, parents and dog walkers, and a great place to play. Summer evenings bring a wider range of informal activities such as picnics or semi-organised classes such as Yoga and Tai Chi 'in the Park' within the peaceful sensory garden that now carry on throughout the year. The Park hosts a variety of organised activities, such as Shakespeare in Park, summer play schemes, junior tennis coaching as well as the cultural events held as part of the Brighton Festival in May and throughout the year. During Lockdown we reserved the sensory garden for priority use for our SEN community, visitors with disabilities & vulnerable people that needed a less hectic environment & one that could ensure physical distancing.