Sitting in the West End of Leicester, Western Park is both the city’s largest park and the name of the surrounding suburb. Purchased in 1897 for £30,000, the park covers 178 acres (0.72 km²) of meadows, mature woodland, and hedgerows, while also housing an unusually wide range of sporting facilities. The ward of Western Park recorded a population of 10,609 at the 2011 census.
Sport and Recreation
Few urban parks in the East Midlands pack in as much sporting provision as Western Park. The grounds include a BMX track, a skate ramp, two bowling greens, five football pitches, six cricket pitches each with changing facilities, and six tennis courts that are now open to the public. Those tennis courts were previously occupied by Westcotes Church Tennis Club and later Westfields Lawn Tennis Club until the 1950s, before the club relocated to a site on nearby Eastfield Road. The full-sized baseball field at the southwest end of the park has been the home ground of the Leicester Blue Sox Baseball Club since 2008. The Blue Sox won the British Baseball Federation national championship in both 2009 and 2012, and the club welcomes players of all ages and abilities across its adult and youth teams.
The Eco House and Community Involvement
Until May 2013, the former park warden’s lodge operated as the “Eco House”, a converted show home used to demonstrate practical ways of making properties more environmentally friendly. It was run by the environmental charity Groundworks Leicester and Leicestershire, formerly called Environ, and formed part of the wider Groundwork UK network alongside a neighbouring recycling centre. The building welcomed the public, hosted one-off events, and received regular visits from local schools. A voluntary group, The Friends of Western Park, continues to work alongside Leicester City Council to improve the park for local residents.
The Western Park Suburb
The residential area sharing the park’s name lies to the south and east of the park and is considered a generally affluent part of Leicester. Dovelands Primary School caters for around 550 children aged 3 to 11, including nursery-age pupils. St. Anne’s Parish Church is also found in the suburb, as is Westfields Lawn Tennis Club, which has four floodlit courts and caters for children and adults from the local area and further afield. Christ the King Roman Catholic Primary School, rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, operates across two sites – an infant site at the top of Western Park and a junior site on Glenfield Road.