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Brief Site History
The Castle Gardens are a relatively modern municipal garden located on lands historically belonging to Leicester Castle and the Newarke College. Gardens of one form or another (including herbarium, vineyards and orchards) are known to have been associated with the Castle and Newarke precincts since early medieval times. The vestige of these earlier gardens continues into the present in parts of the modern Castle Gardens, the grounds of neighbouring Trinity House, Newarke Houses Museum and Castle House. Immediately prior to development of the modern Castle Gardens part of the site was utilised as allotments or 'Guinea Gardens'.

The Development of the Castle Gardens 1926-1945
The Castle Gardens were established by Leicester Corporation and opened to the public in 1926. The initial phase of establishment incorporated the site of the former West Bridge Mills/Corporation Yard, together with reclaimed lands fronting the River Soar/Grand Union Canal. The construction of the gardens as we know them today, occupying the entire canal frontage between the Newarke Bridge and the West Bridge, and incorporating the Castle motte and Castle Terrace, was made possible by the leasing of land from the Trinity Hospital and Leicestershire County Council. The southern most part of the gardens, lands formerly belonging to Trinity Hospital (and today owned by Leicester De Montfort University) was leased in 1937.