The park has multiple sports and recreation facilities such as football, rugby, and cricket pitches, as well as a golf course, a bowling green, a baseball diamond, and the Central Park Leisure Pools.

[4] In 1923, the land for the park, previously used for agriculture, was sold cheaply to the City Council on the condition that it was to remain a public open space.

[2] The park opened in 1931 but many of the planned features were never built due to funding shortages.

The playground area, themed on continents of the world, was demolished and rebuilt out of wood in 2018 as part of a £9 million redevelopment project for the park.

[6] In 2007 the council opted to demolish the ageing Leisure Pools and Mayflower Leisure Centre rather than refurbish them and replace them with a new larger combined indoor sports complex (Plymouth Life Centre) with multi-purpose indoor pitches, basketball court, swimming pool and a café among other venues.