A rolling south London park with a hilltop skyline view, a walled flower garden, ponds and a beloved old lido nearby.
The lowdown
Brockwell Park rolls over a hill between Herne Hill and Brixton, and from its summit near the old house you get one of the best free skyline views in south London, the whole City and West End spread out across the horizon. It is a proper local park, big, green and well loved, with grand old trees and wide lawns made for lazing.
Hidden within it is the Walled Garden, a peaceful enclosure of clipped hedges and flowerbeds that feels miles from the city, plus a chain of ponds, a community greenhouse and a miniature railway on summer weekends. The famous Brockwell Lido, an Art Deco open-air pool, sits at one corner.
It is free to wander, busy and joyful in summer and quietly beautiful in winter. Between the view, the gardens and the laid-back Brixton crowd, it is one of the friendliest free green spaces in the south.
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