ABC Dad Holland Park Playground 01

Following on from the other Science Museum post as part of our ‘summer vacation’, we also spent some time visiting Holland Park. It was our first time in this area and one of the reasons for booking the hotel we due to its central location, and its accessibility to the Holland Park Adventure Playground. The overall park is vast, and there’s different areas – main field, Japanese garden, a baby playground area, and the adventure playground. 

Date Visited: Monday, 24th August 2020

Location: 55 Abbotsbury Rd, Kensington, London W14 8EL

Getting There: Serviced by many buses and central to a number of Underground stations. There’s Holland Park, Shepard’s Bush, Notting Hill Gate, Kensington High St and Kensington Olympia. We walked about 10 minutes after breakfast from Kensington High St. 

Cost: Free   

Review: 

Cara’s love affair with the playground, like most kids, stems from regular visits to Greenwich Park. She’s also had trips to Grovelands Park and Battersea Park. She enjoys climbing around and exploring. As this was a new playground, with some tricky curves and higher equipment (compared to Greenwich Park), she was a bit more apprehensive at first. There’s a lot to take in with numerous sections to explore. There’s three main climbing frames, catered to different ages. Cara tried to tackle the tallest one first but found it a little too high for her liking. She ended up spending most of her time on the middle-sized frame, and a few minutes on the smaller one. But it was good there was a variety of sizes for the kids. 

There’s also a sand and water play area. It was slightly overcast on the day we visited, so Cara wasn’t too interested in getting wet. Lucky for us! There’s also a flying fox, mini trampoline and a communal swing which Cara all enjoyed. 

As with any playground, we saw a few other kids fall and injure themselves slightly, so be sure to keep an eye on them as the playground is quite hilly and bumpy. We ended up spending about an hour or so there before we decided to walk to our next ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ restaurant for lunch. For amenities, there are toilet facilities but couldn’t see any food or drink vendors close by. Best to pick up something from the shops close by before heading into the park. It’s also located next to the ecology centre, so we saw the local peacock strutting its stuff on top of the centre’s roof.

Although Cara had fun, not sure we’ll be back again unless we’re in the area. Cara said she preferred the Greenwich Park playground, but I think that’s just down to familiarity. Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to visit the Princess Diana Playground in Kensington Garden nearby, but something to look forward to next time. 

 ABC Dad Holland Park Playground 03 ABC Dad Holland Park Playground 02  

More details: https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/holland-park-adventure-playground

Ratings:

Burn Time: 4 out of 5 – we popped to the park to burn some time in between breakfast and lunch. Depending on how active your child is and the weather, you could spend most of the day there and have a picnic in the park. 
Value: 5 out of 5 –
can’t get better than free.
Overall: 4 out of 5 –
good to see Cara’s smiling face as she explored a different playground. Some tricky bits to conquer, but there’s enough variety there to keep them entertained.

Are there any other parks and playgrounds around London that we should visit? Let us know in the comments below!