Belle Vue

Belle Vue Park_conservation area 1

The Belle Vue conservation area was designated on 12 January 1976 and is centred on the late Victorian Belle Vue Park, approximately one kilometre to the south west of Newport city centre and immediately to the south east of the Stow Park conservation area.

Download a plan of the Belle Vue conservation area (pdf)

The park is listed Grade ll on the Cadw / ICOMOS Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

There are seven Grade II listed buildings within the curtilage of the park and several others nearby.

The register of historic parks and gardens describes the site as a 35 acre site that was given to the town in 1891 by Lord Tredegar for a public park, the construction of which would relieve unemployment.

A competition for its design was won by renowned garden designer, Thomas Mawson and the park opened in 1894.

It was laid out informally with sweeping walks, grass and ornamental trees, a small valley with rockwork, a stream, pools and cascades and an ornamental pool (now a herb garden).

Slightly later a tea pavilion with terraces below it, conservatories and public amenities such as bowling green, were added.

There are lodges at the north and south entrances, built from stone quarried from the park during construction, the tea pavilion was also built from this stone in 1910.

Near the western end of the park is a circle of stones known as a Gorsedd circle which was erected in 1897 for the National Eisteddfod.

The park is bounded by stone walls topped with railings, and the main entrances are on the north and south sides, each with wrought-iron gates and half-timbered lodges.

Winding paths criss-cross the park and lead to all the main features. In the middle is a small narrow ravine which Mawson turned into an ornamental water garden, with rockwork, pools and cascades, with paths winding through it and over the stream.

At the north end of the park is a gravelled circular area which was originally a pool.

To the west of the water garden is the two-storey tea pavilion built of stone and terracotta, flanked by conservatories.

Below is a series of terraces built out over the slope on massive stone revetment walls.

At the top are two narrow terraces separated by a grass slope below which is a large rectangular terrace with a low stone parapet and circular bastions in the two outer corners. In the middle of this is a restored octagonal bandstand. 

The park is well planted with ornamental trees dating from all periods from before the park’s creation to the present day including some fine mature beech trees, large yew trees, Atlas and Lebanon cedars, Metasequoia, glyptostroboides, Ginkgo biloba and Liquidambar styraciflua.

Restoration 

Belle Vue park was restored in 2000 with the help of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

View details of Newport's listed buildings

Contact 

Contact Newport City Council and ask for the conservation officer.