Victoria Gardens, Golden Lion Square and Town Quay

What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare…

W H Davies, poet, 1911

Newton Abbot is blessed with many places in which to enjoy catching up with friends over a coffee or simply watching the world go by.

Among them are Golden Lion Square, Victoria Gardens and Town Quay.

Turn the clock back several years and Golden Lion Square was home to a used car salesroom on the corner of a busy street.

Now transformed, it is our town centre performance space with plenty of seating right outside our oldest pub, The Golden Lion.

Dating back to 1623, the hostelry became an important coaching inn whose bell to summon departing passengers still hangs high on the outside wall.

Today there’s no hurry to move on, instead rest awhile and check out our website for upcoming events.

At the other end of the town centre, you’ll find Victoria Gardens.

This simple yet elegant ‘pocket park’ with its sustainable planting and tree to celebrate the 2022 Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, lies adjacent to the River Lemon where it emerges from a 400 meter tunnel guiding the waters under shoppers’ feet above.

Popular with ducks and other waterfowl, take a look at the unusual river bed which, many years ago, was carefully lined with locally quarried stone.

It’s a good spot for an al fresco lunch or to read our local weekly newspaper, the Mid-Devon Advertiser whose offices are a stone’s throw away.

Follow the River Lemon downstream for a few hundred meters and you’ll find Town Quay and the confluence with the River Teign.

This was once a busy wharf where valuable ball clay from local pits was shipped out to Teignmouth and ports worldwide.

It’s now a very popular spot from which to sit and enjoy the estuary view or join the 18-mile Templer Way which links Haytor on Dartmoor with the seaside settlements of Shaldon and Teignmouth.

Thanks to an elegant new bridge, walkers and cyclists can also enjoy the traffic-free path which, except on race days, wends its way around Newton Abbot Racecourse to the Hackney Marshes Local Nature Reserve.

Golden Lion Square, Victoria Gardens and Town Quay are all cared for by Newton Abbot Town Council.

We hope you enjoy these special places.