It can't be denied. There's no getting around it. We may as well face up to the fact...
Lee Valley Park is MASSIVE.
Most of us think of a park as a small green space with some neatly manicured flower beds, a couple of beaten up tennis courts, a sloping football pitch strewn with divots, even a slide and swings in some cases.
But when imagining Lee Valley Park, cast from your mind thoughts of your local playground, for this park is about the size of a small country. It is, if you will, the big daddy of Britain's recreational areas.
It rests like a ribbon of green from
Ware in Hertfordshire all the way to the River Thames at
East India Dock Basin. That's a long way. Twenty-six miles to be exact. And covering more than 10,000 acres.
Discovering what the park has to offer may be a tad disheartening for the list is so long that you somehow know that, even if you live till a hundred, you won't have enough time to enjoy all of its delightful activities.
As with every park, you can take a leisurely stroll here and simply enjoy the surroundings. You could return to Lee Valley Park again and again and never see the same scenery twice, such is its size. And in places, like some of its
Green Flag-awarded spots, the scenery is such a feast for the eyes that you'll unlikely be able to consume it all in one go. This park deserves many visits over a long period of time.
There are also opportunities for
cycling,
horse riding, even
fishing and
white water rafting! What's that you say? You want golf?
You've got golf. Camping?
Check. Ice skating?
Of course!
Have a picnic, do some bird-watching, go jogging – there's no limit in terms of Lee Valley Park's offerings.
The park is also home to a number of
historic buildings and gardens such as
Myddelton House and
Waltham Abbey that are worthy of exploration.
Not surprisingly, a park this size has lots of access points and ways to get around – see
here for details.
Whatever the season, there's always something worth doing at the park, and it's a safe bet that when you've been there once, you'll want to return time and time again.
