The 'new park', immediately south of the central area, was to be the result of green and civic spaces - old and new - coming together over many years. These spaces would be defined by the existing roads, with the northern boundary set by one new road or way. There would be four main areas.

The most established were Tower Street Gardens and St.George's Field, adjacent and communicating under Skeldergate Bridge. The Field would be raised and terraced, with bowling greens, tennis courts, an enlarged swimming bath and a boating centre.

The 'new' Castle Area, across the road from the Gardens, was well advanced, with its monuments now accessible and the Castle Museum a popular attraction. But it remained isolated. To connect it to the city centre, it would be extended north behind Castlegate to St Mary's Church. Here a new way would run to Piccadilly and the Merchant Adventurer's Hall.

The 1948 Plan, developed by the City Surveyor's Department and town planning consultants from 1943, was enthusiastically welcomed by the public. They had caught its tenor from J.B.Morrell's book "City of Our Dreams" some years earlier. Now, schemes contemplated for years were co-ordinated and made more tangible. However, the authors of the plan warned that:

In fact, nine of the thirteen major schemes featured as 'The Central Area as Proposed" have been realised. Subsequent planning is influenced by the plan. Its riverside walk proposals for Guildhall Reach are being realised now.

Today such a 'park' may seem ambitious, even though there is current emphasis on delivering urban parks. Yet it was modest, in relation to the Plan's inner ring road, for example. Fifty years of other development have eroded it. Only Tower Street Gardens remains as planned. St.George's Field has none of the planned sports facilities. But it remains open land. A car park preserves its potential, just as with the Castle site. The greening of the east side of Piccadilly seems most unlikely. Shops, offices and apartments are proposed here, though the AJ's survey of the city criticised plans for large stores in Piccadilly as long ago as 1969.

The plan's northern extension of the Castle Area became the Coppergate Shopping Development, opened in 1984. Something similar had been proposed by Esher in his conservation plan of 1969, in a less land-hungry form. With the Yorvik Viking Centre, the Centre has proved popular, and it helps to 'plug-in' the Castle Precinct to the city centre. It incorporates the new way by St.Mary's Church proposed in 1948, though this runs not to the Merchant Adventurer's Hall but to department stores.