[2] It is one of Brighton's largest parks, with 63 acres (250,000 m2) of lawns, formal borders and rose gardens, bowling greens, tennis courts and a small pond.

The costs of the purchase (£50,000) and initial layout (£22,868) were funded with a bequest of £70,000 from a local bookmaker, William Edmund Davies in 1879.

[9] Opposite the park, across the main London Road, is The Rockery—the largest municipal rock garden in Britain[4] built up the side of a steep railway embankment.

It was originally a wooded area which had been purchased along with the land used for the main park; it was landscaped into its present form in 1935 by Captain B Maclaren.

[11] In January 2015 British Cycling issued a statement indicating that they had assessed the track as being unfit for racing, and that they would not sanction competition at the velodrome for the summer of 2015.

Local cyclist Rupert Rivett started a Facebook community page relating to the campaign which received over 4,000 likes in two days.