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A guest post on a day trip to Princess Diana Memorial Play Park

As a regular commuter to London, the prospect of taking your 2 year old son on a Saturdaymorning into London to meet long lost family friends for a brief coffee – can seem far from exciting! This was not how I wanted to the first day of my weekend, but I knew it meant a lot to my family. So off we went!

The prospect of a ‘choo choo train’ ride was more than enough to create an overly excited little boy, but this ended up being the least exciting part of the day. On arriving in London we headed to our arranged meeting place, a hotel by Kensington Gardens. We negotiated the tube and we all survived despite the summer heat and fellow day trippers. The plan was set – a walk in Kensington Gardens with the hope of finding a play park to entertain the now ‘bored of travelling’ child. As we wondered into the park I spotted the universal sign of a coffee shop – a picnic bench!

As we meandered towards what appeared to be a cafe, we began to realise there was much more. We had, by chance, found ourselves at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. What an amazing find!

Secured by a manned gate and enclosed by a fence, the park is immaculately maintained. At the centre of the park is a huge wooden pirate ship which is set amongst an even bigger sandpit. Surrounding the pirate ship are a number of smaller areas providing picnic facilities and different types of play equipment including tepees and the usual swing/slide combinations. There are fountains and streams to allow for water play as well as treasure chests hidden for little ones to discover.

The hardest thing was deciding what to play on first – our son was in his element, so was I! To top off our visit the park is situated next to a fab little cafe where you can get coffees, home baked cakes, fresh lunches and ice creams. All of which can be purchased and enjoyed within the playground.

We only had an hour free to enjoy the park, but it is definitely on the list of things to revisit. This time we’ll go more prepared with sandpit toys and beach shoes – but we’ll also make sure we can stay and enjoy a cafe lunch as the chocolate brownie was a good advertisement for their food!

By Emily