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As I stated in the title, where is the smallest public park (owned by government, local government or a charity such as RHS)?

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    according to cargocollective.com/brendancormier/Anatomy-of-a-Parkette, a 900 sq m park is only the 165th smallest in Toronto. If anyone can find the list that is 165th on, you could presumably find parks less than 100 sq m
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 16:33
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    What defines a park? Because if it just needs to be a patch of grass and maybe a tree, maintained by the government or a charity, I can think of plenty that are not larger than a few square meters.
    – Berend
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 20:35
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    @Berend That is the definition of a park so if you have one in mind please give an answer
    – Boolean
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 22:58
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    I'm never going to beat the current top answer. And if that's the kind of park you were after, that's fine, but somehow I'd expect a park to be just a bit more than a potted tree. Maybe it's time to adjust my narrow views on parks ;-)
    – Berend
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 9:23
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because This is not a travel question
    – Uciebila
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 13:11

7 Answers 7

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Technically Mill Ends Park in Portland, Oregon, USA. It is a circle 2 feet (0.6 m) across. It was named an official city park in 1976, and is operated by Portland Parks & Recreation.

Mill Ends Park

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    Bingo! This is really small, and here's its official Portland Parks webpage: portlandoregon.gov/parks/finder/…
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 20:41
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    What? Why? Okay, that's just odd.
    – Spudley
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 21:53
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    But going with that definition this question seems to become essentially the paradox of the heap. How many blades of grass make the smallest possible 'patch'? That seems impossible to usefully answer, which makes the question impossible to answer.
    – bdsl
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 23:10
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    @Spudley This is Portland.
    – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 2:27
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    @bdsl quiet! You're encouraging theologians to train angles to plant grass on the head of a pin.
    – candied_orange
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 3:40
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I nominate Tjoffsans Tivoli in Malmö, Sweden. It is an amusement park for mice (also known as amousement park) created by Anonymouse MMX. It's not owned by any government, but it's public and maybe it could be classified as a charity.

enter image description here

It looks like it covers an area of approximately 1-2 m². It's unclear whether it is still open though.

enter image description here

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    the lights are on, I guess it's open.
    – Jasen
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 3:58
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    @Jasen I'll believe it when I see any actual mice in attendance...
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 19:39
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    Someone should call an inspector on that park. It looks like a death trap to me.
    – John Dvorak
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 22:36
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The other answers show non-official parks or "novelty" parks that you cannot actually fit a person into.

Hence, I nominate Jack Early Park, San Francisco, CA. It has a flight of stairs leading up to a concrete platform with two benches. You get a nice view over the bay.

I could not find any data on its size, but from having been there myself I estimate the area to not be much more than 25 m² (only counting the platform, not the stairs).

It is hard to find a good picture of the whole park, since it is a small platform. I recommend viewing the 360° view on Google.

Jack Early Park Plaque

Jack Early Park (c) 2009 Bryan Costales (c) 2009 Bryan Costales

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Of course, in Japan everything is smaller. This one is 0.25 square metres, complete with bench. However, it's not technically a park, but a road feature, so it doesn't qualify for the Guinness Book of Records:

enter image description here

See Japanese Wikipedia or a local web page for more details.

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While not the smallest park in the world, the smallest park in the UK is Prince's Park in Burntwood, Staffordshire.

Photo of Prince's Park, Burntwood

Photo © Geoff Pick via Wikipedia Commons, CC-BY-SA

Google Street View link

It was built in 1863 to commemorate the marriage of the future king Edward VII, and in 2013 was the location for the UK's shortest fun run, with the slowest competitor finishing in a mere 55 seconds: link.

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I nominate the small corner lot at North Pacific Avenue and Mission Street, Santa Cruz, California. I concede it is not named as a "Park," and doesn't appear in the City's list of parks, but it is treated as a park by the City and its residents, and is maintained by the City.

Here's a Street View Picture. The public area is between the blue wall and the street from which the photo was taken:

enter image description here

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    It is owned and managed by a local government (the City of Santa Cruz, a qualifying entity under the terms of the question), which has posted two signs on the property. One is at the right edge of the driveway, a few feet beyond the sidewalk, and appears in the screenshot. There is a second sign, also placed by the City, on the far street border of the property facing Mission Street. Finally, a metal plaque identifying the property as "Scribner Park" (Scribner was a local character, now deceased) is placed on the rock wall visible above on the right.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 15:42
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    By the standard of being treated as a park by a city that maintains it, I nominate the round-a-bout (traffic circle) at the intersection of Cole Valley Road, Sarehole Road, and the A4040 in Birmingham, England. It has grass, flower beds, a tree, and an official sponsor.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 17:13
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    @PatriciaShanahan According to Google Maps measuring tool, the traffic circle center is 22m in diameter, for an area of 380 square meters. Scribner Park is about 25m x 16 m, for an area of 400 square meters. The traffic circle center (everything within the roadway) is thus indeed smaller than Scribner.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 17:33
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    I'm sure there are smaller roundabouts than that one in the UK that are maintained as parks. This one in Belper, Derbyshire is about 19m diameter, and comes with a statue as well as flower beds, sponsors, etc. google.co.uk/maps/@53.0208585,-1.4846815,3a,75y,29.62h,90t/…
    – alephzero
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 0:15
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    Yes, @alephzero. I just quickly picked a small roundabout I happen to know because I grew up near it. The point I was trying to make is that the question may need to define "park" a bit more narrowly.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 3:03
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I bet that the Heemskerk Lunet 10 does make a good chance as the smallest 'national park like' park, as it is a rather small bit of ground owned by Noordhollands Landschap.
Here is a link to it on google maps.
And here is a link to the charity that manages it as well as several others in the area.

I can not find any official information, the charity does not give it on their site. Google maps gives me about 100 x 82 meter, which would give me 8200 m², but that is not very precise.

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    Do you know what the area (in km square or miles square) is?
    – Boolean
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 14:36
  • Looking for the size but it will be in m² rather than km², so small it is.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 14:48
  • That's even better!
    – Boolean
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 14:48
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    I can not find any official information, the charity does not give it on their site. Google maps gives me about 100 x 82 meter, which would give me 8200 m², but that is not very precise.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 14:53
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    As small parks go, that's rather large. Just off the top of my head, Codger Park in Colefax is about 720 square meters, Pioneer Plaza in Davenport is about 900 square meters, there's an unnamed park next to the Rosalia library that's 1200 square meters, and I've seen a number of other small-town parks that are about the size of one small shop.
    – Mark
    Commented Jan 26, 2020 at 20:32

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