Drake’s Place receives tenth successive Green Flag Award

The largest green space on campus is regularly used for teaching, campus and community events
Drakes Place Garden and Reservoir Café
A relaxing green space close to the heart of the University of Plymouth campus has retained its prestigious Green Flag Award for a tenth successive year.
Drake’s Place Gardens and Reservoir have been a prominent feature of the city centre in various forms for almost 200 years.
Taken over by the University after laying derelict for around four decades, they underwent a complete restoration and transformation.
Reopened in the summer of 2014, the project created an accessible, welcoming haven offering a mix of facilities for people of all ages.
A key element of the University’s commitments to sustainability and biodiversity, the space also provides a safe and diverse habitat for a variety of plants and wildlife.
The area was first recognised through the Green Flag Award accreditation – the international quality mark for parks and green spaces – in 2015.
The 2024 award is the tenth such accolade, and acknowledges the continued hard work and dedication of the team that care for the area.
Drake’s Place is managed by the University’s Estates and Facilities Directorate, who ensure it can be accessed and enjoyed by hundreds of staff, students and visitors on a daily basis.

This latest Green Flag Award is an acknowledgement of the ongoing team effort involved in maintaining the gardens and reservoir, but also of the vision that led to its restoration. A decade after that was completed, Drake’s Place remains one of the green jewels in the University’s crown. It is hugely popular with staff and students, and it will continue to serve as a welcoming space in the heart of our campus and the wider city centre alike.

Trevor WillsTrevor Wills
Director of Estates & Facilities

Big Festival Weekend - Storytelling in Drake's Place
Celebrating the Holi festival 2018 
Drake's Place Gardens and Reservoir
The £1.2 million project to restore Drake's Place was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund.
It enabled the reservoir, which served as the main source of water for the city from its construction in 1825 until 1898 – and will celebrate its 200th anniversary next year – to be cleaned and conserved.
The neighbouring gardens, first constructed in 1891, were also restored to a 1910 design and replanted with many species used at that time.
Since it reopened in 2014, the space has hosted a number of university and community events, and it is also used for teaching on courses including fine art, Primary Education, environmental science , and filmmaking.
 

Drake's Place Gardens and Reservoir 

A place to unwind, refuel, play table tennis or just let off steam. 
Beautifully restored to its former glory, Drake’s Place is an award-winning community space offering a calm and relaxing oasis amidst the whirl of urban living. It is an accessible, welcoming haven and a safe diverse habitat for wildlife that has won the Green Flag award every year since 2015.
The gardens and reservoir are open during daylight hours.
Drake's Place Gardens

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The University is recognised as an innovative leader in higher education for sustainability, across teaching and learning, research and our University operations.
Our main goals are: to have a sustainable campus; to enable learning about sustainability and to pioneer research solutions to the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges; to motivate the next generation of students to go out and tackle the sustainability challenges they'll find in their workplaces.
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