The view from Rochester Castle is across The Esplanade to the river. A pleasure walk was first made alongside the foot of the Castle wall in 1829, and this in part survives
The land by the river was marshy and had to be reclaimed for use. The present gardens were begun in 1961 as part of the Charter commemoration celebrations and have been expanded for riverside recreation. The stone balustrade came from Rochester's medieval bridge.

In 2014, the Kent Gardens Trust performed a review of historical information relating to Esplanade Gardens, Rochester.

"STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Esplanade Gardens are associated with well-known and frequently-illustrated former Rochester landmarks, namely C17 Ladbury Cottage, the subject for many artists, and the C19 Watts Charity Baths, this site offering archaeological interest as the footprint of the Baths survives as parch marks in the grass. Several surviving features demonstrate architectural interest related to various periods of Rochester’s civic development: the mid C19 and C20 reclamation works incorporating the stonework (grade II listed balustrades) from the medieval bridge, and the Pier entrance’s mid-Victorian granite plinths and fine decorative ironwork lamps from McFarlane’s Saracen Foundry, rescued from the Old Bridge. The Gardens’ shoreline was previously home to river-dependent commercial and industrial organisations such as barge builders and marine engineers.
The Gardens’ artistic interest lies in their position and open character, offering wide and varied scenic views over the river, up to the Castle, Cathedral and Satis House (associated with Charles Dickens) and south to St. Margaret’s church.
The Gardens provide valuable public open space including a riverside walk which forms part of the 28 mile long Medway Valley Walk from Tonbridge to Rochester. The pier, once the focus of ferry traffic from as far away as London, is still operative for craft but also serves local events such as the annual July concerts at the Castle when firework displays are set up on it.

… Esplanade Gardens are situated on the east bank of the River Medway, between the Esplanade road and the river Medway’s embankment, immediately south-west of and below the steeply-rising walls of Rochester Castle. The site is largely level, roughly wedge-shaped and covers about 4ha with its narrowest point (barely 3m) at the northern end mid-way opposite the Castle but at its widest point, some 300m further south, it is about 140m broad from river to road.

Its flat nature allows for views both up to the Castle, Cathedral and Satis House immediately above it, and to St. Margaret’s church beyond it on the heights to the south, as well as open views across the River and the Victorian cast iron bridge to Strood on the west side.

The site is divided into two unequal sections by the presence of Rochester Cruising Club’s (RCC) grounds which occupy a strip roughly 30m in length (north to south) and extending westwards from Esplanade Road to the riverside. The smaller section (north of RCC) is bounded on its east side, from its northernmost tip to the entrance to Rochester Pier (30m to the south), by balustrade walling (listed grade II), relocated as part of the embankment works in 1857 from the demolished medieval bridge. South of the Pier entrance, south as far as the RCC’s grounds, the Gardens are bounded along the pavement by a low, staggered brick wall of four or five courses with a brick coping.

...The northern c0.5ha section of the Gardens, opposite the Castle wall, is laid to lawn where in a dry summer the footprint of the C19 Watts Charity Baths survives inside the main entrance as marks visible in the grass (Google Earth 2013)." (1)

<1> Kent Gardens Trust, 2014, The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Medway: Esplanade Gardens, Rochester (Unpublished document). SKE31409.