Golders Hill Park

A lovely little park just off Hampstead Heath. I'm always surprised about how big it is. It's got a beautiful garden area, a fun playground area for kids, a little cafe and a small zoo to name a few things.

I've been about half a dozen times and it's never been that busy compared to other London parks.

Well worth the visit

Lovely day at the park for a picnic. It was my first time visiting. There is minimal pay and display car Parking close by (I think £4 for 3 hours) as its mostly permit parking. After driving round, I managed to find free parking just a few roads away, on Wycombe gardens off Finchley Road. This was a 5 minute walk to the park entrance...Perfect! At the entrance was an ice cream van, which was just starting to set-up.

We arrived at round 12ish and the park was not so busy. We sat with a view of the pond surrounded by lots of flowers, which was very pretty. We had our picnic and just relaxed and enjoyed the fab weather. As the park got busier, Their were people playing games all around; flying kites, throwing a ball etc.

There is a restaurant nearby, which has toilets. The restaurant had a wide variety of food on offer and even were selling fresh quartered watermelon, which was a big hit. Before we left around 3pm, we enjoyed my homemade Nutella cheesecake, which stayed cool enough (in the cool bag) to eat. Perfect ending to our family picnic. I hope to come back as I heard you can walk further into the park to the pagoda, which provides picturesque views.

This park is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! It's pretty small and walkable in around 30-45 minutes if you take a slow stroll and look at all the animals that are in the park. There's a small pond that freezes over in the wintertime, and the ducks just hang out and sit over the ice, it's pretty funny and cute :) There's a small section with a deer enclosure, tennis courts, croquet lawn, golf practice nets, zoo and even a butterfly house!!! It's pretty crazy, it's almost like a small zoo!

In the spring time, there are yellow and white flowers that bloom all over the lawns and it is absolutely breathtaking! I run through this park 2-3 times a week and am always shocked by how beautiful it is! It's attached to Hampstead Heath, and Hampstead extension is about a 3 minutes jog from it as well, if you are looking for a longer distance. Also if you want something more secluded, there's a whole section with tall trees and dirt trails that you can totally get lost in.

Families often take their kids to walk about the park, even in the winter time! The grass freezes over and I had no idea frozen grass could be so beautiful! This park is also perfect in that there's a cafe with delicious food, drinks, cakes, and ICE CREAM you can relax in that overlooks the park with giant windows! It can get quite busy on a nice day around 10am, but if you come a bit earlier, it 's really quiet and quite nice to have the place to yourself. There's no wifi but you can bring a book and settle down with a cup of coffee! There is also an ice cream truck that parks pretty close to the cafe most times during the spring as well.

I am so grateful to be living within walking distance to this park! I haven't seen it in the summertime yet, but I can imagine it to be glorious!!!

This is a great Park, my girlfriend lives a few minutes walk away and on a summers day, we often go into the park for a nice stroll. At any entrance you will find an Ice Cream van, or if you can wait, you can find the store that sells the scoop ice cream.

This is a huge an a very well kept park. There hard and grass courts tennis courts, golf nets and an animal enclosure.

I love this park, lots to see, loads of nice turns and secret little places to see.

I've lived near Hampstead Heath for over two years now, and never knew this part of the heath existed until this past weekend!
Even though the weather wasn't great, we still had a lovely time walking around the park, and I loved the free zoo!
There's also a charming little cafe that serves really good coffee and cake (the italian pastry I had was delicious!). They serve traditional Italian dishes too, and whilst I didn't have any, what I saw on other tables looked very promising. Next time I go to the park, will definitely fit in lunch there!

I really like this park. A lot. It's well-marked with signs pointing to the animal enclosures, public toilets, etc. Except for one thing, but I'll get to that.

It's a small, manageable park with winding pathways and gorgeous trees and flowers. Even on a gloomy day like today was, it still felt like a glorious escape from the city. The butterfly house was tiny, but I used to work at the Bronx Zoo which has a massive butterfly garden, so I'm going to be a bit biased on that end. Though, I didn't see very many butterflies today :-/

I really enjoyed wandering around and finding new things - there's a refreshment stand (I brought my lunch, so I can't comment on the food), tennis courts, playground, benches everywhere, a fountain, a water garden, etc. Everywhere you turn there's a new way to experience nature.

However, I was really taken aback by the "zoo." Yes, I realise it's a small zoo and not meant to be an experience in and of itself. Still, I was shocked by how distressed I felt at the site of these animals penned into small enclosures with two chain fences between us. Again, I used to work at a zoo known for having open, fenceless enclosures, so I am biased. But still. I was disappointed because I couldn't really see the few animals they had. And the animals seemed pretty random - ibis, kookaburra, ring-tailed lemurs, and donkeys. All right next to one another. *shrug* To each his own.

The exception is the deer enclosure, with that one random ostrich dude. He didn't like me too much, judging from his glare. But the deer? Man oh man. They're gorgeous. They looked young, but have clearly been at the park for long enough that they don't run away when you approach them. Although, again, it's a double layer fence you're coming at them through, so I bet they've learned humans can't reach them.

I will definitely be back - it was a quiet day today and started raining so I didn't get to explore as much as I'd have liked. My main reason for going was the zoo. While I didn't like that, I was very pleasantly surprised by everything else.

Seven days ago, we spent several hours walking all around Golders Hill Park, the West Heath and Hampstead Heath (see my separate review for the latter). It was all lovely, but Golders Hill Park has lots of beautiful flowers and they were still in bloom. There's even a small zoo. Also, we ate lunch at the Brew House Café (see my separate review).

Golders Hill Park and the nearby Hill Garden with its Pergola, are absolutely breathtaking.
Please try not to all come at once as it can get to be a tight squeeze.
Where does one start...the Park has a Mini Zoo!!!
It has Beautiful Gardens.
It has Tennis Courts
It has a Proper Refreshment Area
It has a mini golf range
Right next door through a bit of Hampstead Heath....
The Pergola its almost like a secret Garden ...as you enter the Garden you see nothing much until you step past the Shrubbery, woah, that is too much!!
Please bring your Sketch Pads and draw or paint, stunning!!
Enjoy

Golders Hill Park is right next to Golders Green Tube station, so is very accessible. Once you arrive you'll see a lovely cafe to your right, which has the best ice cream I have tasted in London from coconut to honey comb. The most delightful part of the park is the nature reserve, which houses lots of different animals including birds and deers. There is a dense wooded area, but I wouldn't venture there at night, you may get lost or stumble upon something you shouldn't. All in all it's a lovely day out.

One of London's top notch parks. It has a great cafe serving delicious cakes and lunches as well as fabulous ice creams (in summer). The park also has a mini-zoo containing all sorts of cute, furry and outlandish creatures. There is plenty of open ground, a tree nursery, a formal landcsaped garden and a water garden - it has a lot! Well worth a visit if you're in the neighbourhood. There is good disabled acess with many level walks and level access to the cafe too. The walks are all hard surfaced too, so very accomodating for the elderly or disabled.