Open Spaces

Rotherham Council Is leading on a range of public realm projects in Rotherham town centre. Public realm improvements are taking place along key routes in the town centre to improve connections and create modern, welcoming spaces.

Bridgegate has been transformed with new paving, upgraded lighting and contemporary planters.

College Street was completed in autumn 2021 and includes new paving and lighting plus 11 additional Pay and Display parking spaces.

Work has now been completed on Frederick Street and Howard Street and includes upgraded paving and lighting, alongside new seating and trees.

The town centre is home to many of the town’s buildings dating from the 18th century to the early 1900s. For stunning architecture, you only need to look up. At the heart of the town centre, enveloping the stunning Rotherham Minster, Minster Gardens with its Heart of Steel is the perfect place to sit with a cup of coffee and the morning paper, whilst around the corner resides All Saints’ Square, with its gentle water feature and on-street cafés.

Just a short five-minute walk from the Minster, award-winning Clifton Park is nestled on the edge of the town centre with 54-acres of landscaped gardens, splash park, small woodland, museum and play parks.

More green spaces are being developed in the town centre with the new Pocket Park on High Street - called Snail Yard as it resides alongside the quaintly named Snail Hill. Seating and trees will decorate the grass covered terraces whilst timber-clad pods will serve food and beverages during cultural events, welcoming families and visitors to the town.

Forge Island, which sits between the River Don and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal, will host a new cinema and restaurants. High-quality landscaping has been created next to the canal, and the leisure facilities will be set within an attractive square with a new pedestrian bridge over the river connecting the island to the wider town centre. The planned Riverside Gardens will transform the landscape between the Minster and Forge Island.

New ampitheatre seating means visitors to the town will be able to sit with fantastic views of the river and the new fish pass; if you are lucky, you might even see salmon swimming up the river for the first time in 200 years, Otters, or the island’s resident cheeky heron looking for a bite to eat!