A new open air theatre space has been created on the waterfront at Teat’s Hill, Plymouth as part of the wider refurbishment of the greenspace next to Coxside beach and the slipway.
Developed as part of Plymouth City Council’s Active Neighbourhoods project, the 10m wide circular stone amphitheatre will provide a new community space for art, culture and education, with activities already planned by its neighbour, the National Marine Aquarium.
The Active Neighbourhoods project, funded by the Big Lottery, is creating natural green ‘hubs’ in five of Plymouth’s communities to engage local people, promote active citizenship, and support improved health and wellbeing. Teat’s Hill is one of the five projects and feedback from a range of community engagement events fed into designs for an improved play area, landscaping and the new outdoor air theatre.
Built in part using reclaimed local stone by Hannon Homes of Teignmouth, the space was designed and part-funded in collaboration with the Chair of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, as a part of a pan-European research project, under the Horizon2020 Research Programme, called BlueHealth. The project is focused on how water-based environments in towns and cities across Europe can affect human health and wellbeing. Researchers will study the use of the space before and after the improvements, and consider how localised projects to improve these ‘blue’ spaces can affect their recreational use and impact on physical activity and mental wellbeing.
Teat’s Hill Play Area and Coxside Beach are set in a prominent and accessible place on Plymouth’s waterfront, just a stone’s throw from the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth University’s Diving and Marine Centre and Queen Anne’s Battery. The park and beach have beautiful views back towards the Barbican and out to the Sound, and the new amphitheatre seating has made the most of this fantastic outlook. Pedestrian access has been enhanced to the public slipway directly below the theatre space, and the potential for vehicular access for boats in the future has been maintained.
The open air theatre will be officially opened at an event on 1st June.
LHC undertook site supervision/inspection to ensure that the delivery of the scheme met the design requirements.
For further information Active Neighbourhoods (Plymouth City Council and Devon Wildlife Trust) www.plymouth.gov.uk/parksnatureandgreenspaces/activeneighbourhoods
For further information on the European BlueHealth research project at Teat’s Hill
https://bluehealth2020.eu/projects/urban-beach-regeneration/