Liverpool is England’s second-largest city – when you count the numbers of residents within the city limits anyway. Within the urban sprawl, however, there are some fantastic parks in which to relax. Here are some of the best parks in Liverpool to check out on your trip away.
- Stanley Park
- Sefton Park
- Newsham Park
- Croxteth Hall and Country Park
- Calderstones Park
- Reynolds Park
Stanley Park
If this is the city’s best-known park, then it owes its fame to Premier League football commentaries. The city is home to both Liverpool FC and Everton FC. For fans of one club to refer to the other club as ‘the neighbours from across Stanley Park’ really is an accurate description.
In the half-mile between Liverpool FC’s Anfield Road Stadium and Everton FC’s Goodison Park lies this 110-acre traditional Victorian park. It was designed by Edward Kemp, a protégé of celebrated landscape architect Joseph Paxton. While much of Kemp’s design has disappeared to make way for football pitches, bowling greens and tennis courts. Other elements still remain, such as the lakes and the bridges crossing them; and the eye-catching sandstone ‘pavilions’.
The undoubted jewel in the crown of the park is the Isla Gladstone Conservatory. This enormous glasshouse is open to the public every day as a bistro-style café. The building can also be hired for weddings and corporate events and is used by Liverpool FC for matchday hospitality.
Sefton Park
This is the largest park in the south of the city – and one of the best parks in Liverpool to visit! It borders the districts of Toxteth, Aigburth and Wavertree. Sefton Park’s 235 acres have received almost every accolade a park can possibly win – it is a Grade I historic park. A Green Heritage awarded site and holds Green Flag status.
It’s obvious from the map that this was a formally designed park, as it’s almost a perfect oval shape. On offer here are places to fish, boat, play tennis, cycle along trails, as well as a large play area, enchanting caves and waterfalls, fine avenues of beech trees, numerous statues and monuments, a traditional bandstand and the Palm House conservatory. The Palm House is home to a superb collection of plants. They are from all around the world and is also available for hire as an event space.
The twice-yearly Liverpool Food and Drink Festival and the annual Liverpool International Music Festival takes place in the park.
Newsham Park
This park opened in 1868, around the same time as Stanley and Sefton parks. They were designed as part of the same initiative to provide open spaces for the people of the city. While Stanley is Liverpool’s principal northern park, and Sefton is located to the south, you’ll find the 121-acre Newsham Park to the east of the city centre.
It’s one of the best city parks in Liverpool for angling – provided you have a permit. Here you can fish for roach, carp and tench in one of two large lakes.
Newsham Park is also a great location for sports enthusiasts, as you’ll find skateboarding facilities and BMX trails here.
There are a number of fine buildings dotted around the park. One of them is the bandstand, the Seamen’s Orphan Institution and Newsham House. In the autumn, it’s one of the best places in Liverpool to see the colours changing on the trees.
Croxteth Hall and Country Park
Sefton Park might be the largest municipal park in the city. At 500 acres, this is Liverpool’s largest green space.
Children will love the traditional working Victorian farm, the adventure playground, the Jungle Parc zip wires and the orienteering trails. Adults can use the outdoor gym to keep fit too.
The Hall, once home to the Earls of Sefton, and dating from Edwardian times, is open to the public throughout the summer.
Other highlights include Mull Wood and the other woodlands; and the Victorian Walled Garden, known for its fruit trees.
Calderstones Park
Located south-east of the city centre, this is also a fairly large park, at 100 acres. This is a great place for history enthusiasts. It’s home to a 1,000-year-old oak, amongst a number of other ancient trees; and the ancient Calder Stones megaliths.
The Botanical Gardens, which include a fine Japanese garden, are well worth seeing when exploring the best parks in Liverpool. The park also has fishing ponds, a miniature railway, a playground, the Storybarn interactive storytelling centre and a café and ice cream parlour.
The Liverpool International tennis tournament takes place here every June.
Calderstones Park is also adjacent to Strawberry Field. The former Salvation Army children’s home that was immortalised in the John Lennon-penned Beatles hit Strawberry Fields Forever. It now houses a Beatles exhibition and a meditation garden. Lennon’s childhood home on Menlove Avenue is also just down the road and is open to the public thanks to the National Trust.
Reynolds Park
A somewhat smaller park, this green space in the Woolton area of the city packs a lot into its 14 acres.
Gardening enthusiasts will love the Walled Garden, with its dahlias and herbaceous borders; the wildflower meadows; and the woodlands where rhododendrons grow.
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