Sefton Park

We are completely spoiled in south Liverpool to have such a beautiful green space on our doorstep. It’s spacious, well-​maintained, highly accessible, and it’s simply got everything you could want from a park — wide open spaces, gorgeous scenery, flower arrangements, bandstands, and a lake with adjoining café and pedalo hire. There’s also the palm house, a large attractive glass structure housing beautiful plant life and occasionally holding concerts. It’s also well-​connected via bus links, and is adjoined by Lark Lane, a beautiful bohemian area with a great selection of bars, shops, and eateries.
There’s nothing better than lazing around on the park’s grassy fields on a sunny summer’s day with friends, kicking a football around or having a little barbecue. Thanks to it’s wide pathways, t’s also perfect year-​round for joggers, cyclists, and people with pets and/​or children to entertain.
You’d be hard-​pushed to find a better public park anywhere else outside of London.

This has to me one of the most beautiful places in the UK, lakes, streams, landscaping and a palm house. so much to see and do it’s an amazing place don’t bother with the café though it’s highly expensive

very romatic location with many stunning plants from all over the world. A must see if you are up visiting liverpool

This park is delightful, fabulous, grand, enormous and just about perfect.
It’s a wonderful place for a picnic, a long walk, a short walk, or even just a quiet place to sit and think and enjoy nature.
I love this park. It’s wonderful to have places like this in the city for those of us who grew up in the woods and desperately miss life in the countryside – it’s so much better than the city!

You could walk around Sefton Park every day for a century and not see it in the same way twice. I don’t know what would be so special about that 36,501^st day but that’d be the one you get bored on.
A mighty, verdant wonderland of precise landscape design, the park has everything– a lake, a cricket club, a café, tennis courts, an obelisk, a grotto, a dingly dell, a palm house, a nature reserve, an iron bridge, a swing park, a bowling green, fountains and a bandstand. Once upon a time, there was also an aviary, an open-​air theatre and even a freaking pirate ship. Nowadays it plays host to the jangly joy of the Africa Oyé festival, as well as whatever circus has thundered into town from across the eastern horizon.
Opened in 1872 by Prince Arthur (Queen Victoria’s son) who dedicated it «for the health and enjoyment of the townspeople», the park received a vital face-​lift in 2009. The lake was cleaned, sloppy grass banks were resculpted, signposts erected, statues polished and view-​blocking trees were sliced down, somehow making the vast park seem even more open and welcoming.
Oh yeah, I forgot ducks off that list before. It has ducks. Ooh and grass.

The only reason I haven’t given Sefton Park 5 stars is ironically because it’s so popular. A paradox perhaps? As much as I love Sefton Park, it can get incredibly busy on a sunny day which can sometimes ruin your relaxing stroll through the park in the sunshine.
Screaming kids and dogs chasing after you doesn’t really scream idyll does it? But on the plus side, it is a lovely park with ponds and a little café. It is acres of lovely park, and is made famous due it’s palm house.

A dear friend of mine is a Lark laner and everytime we are out in Liverpool I seem to end up at his. Now call me wierd but I am an early morning jogger. I am definately not one of those people you see joggin in the middle of the day in a busy street. I like jogging when there is no one around and I am absolutely alone, I find it relaxes me. Besides I find it extremely strange that people choose to jog near roads in rush hour, you are in polution ville people have you lost your marbles, noise and car emmissions galore!!! I think they’re definately attention seekers… Anyway… moving on… Sefton park!
Sefton park is ideal for a 5am jog in the summer I can vouch for that, it has a decent joggin circuit. Nothing beats that fresh feeling in the morning birds chirping and the sun rising. While somewhere like hyde park in London there are plenty of people like me jogging at this hour, luckily in Liverpool there aren’t so many, which is great I have most of the park to myself. Now I must point out there is around 650 acres so plenty of space to run around, even apart from the jogging circuit.
Sefton Park Cricket Club is here, so it is a relaxing way to spend an afternoon with a deck chair watchign some cricket. (for some of you anyway) If that’s not your cup of tea the park also has tennis courts and a bowling green. Although you must admit, cricket is better than bowling!!! It is also used every November to hold the European Cross Country Championships trial races for the British team. Joy!!! wouldn’t miss it for the world (sarcasm) However I must report this for the benefit of those who’d love to stand around in the muddy sub zero temperatures in the early hours of the sunday mornings to watch people running around for miles & miles only to end up at the same place, seriously what is the point? Moving swiftly on…
Sefton park is a great offering for Liverpudlians and visitors to the city alike. To enjoy it to the maximum however I would suggest either a late afternoon stroll or an early morning one to avoid all that noise polution.

I couldn’t continue to write reviews for Liverpool locals without giving a mention to Sefton Park. The main reason is that I have such fond memories of lazy summer days there and general park fun. During these summer months if you live in Liverpool it would be a cardinal sin not to get yourself down to Sefton Park with a football underarm and some ice creams to eat and waste the day away amongst the beautiful surroundings. Sefton Park with it’s huge lake and vast greenery is living proof that within the concrete jungle of a metropolitan city there are still places of outstanding natural beauty. There is a small café which is pleasant and cheap and provides you with hot and cold drinks as well as ice cream and other foods, all the fuel you need for a summers day. It is hard to review places of nature but Sefton Park is a special example, and one of my fondests memories was witnessing the excellent firework display which was put on free of charge on Bonfire night. So all year round Sefton Park is a treat go and check it out for yourself.

With the summer sunshine rapidly approaching — oops well that’s probably put an end to that — it’s time to start thinking about where you will spend those long lazy weekends.
For most people on the south side of the city, the preferred option is Sefton Park. Now that it has undergone a 2 year long refurbishment — I know a park getting a bloody refurb which pretty much would have spoilt any park going experience here after its grass was dug up and lake drained but for the fact we haven’t had a summer here for the last couple of years anyway — the place is back in business and with a crystal clear lake and a new boat house.
There a plenty of little sights to take in here such as The Palm House which regularly hosts jazz events and the park itself is a venue for lots of things in the summer such as June’s Afric Oye which is an excellent 2 day free event. You might not know some of the acts playing here but in the last two years I have seen Culture here and Kanda Bongo Man was here in 2009 attracting hundreds of Liverpool’s African and Carribean residents to party in the cloudy-​with-​sunny-​spells vibe!
On any sunny evening or weekend you will find hundreds down here barbequeing and relaxing often before heading along to nearby Lark Lane for a scoop in the last of the sunshine.

There is nothing that beats a great day out in the sun than to spend your time at Sefton Park. The park is acres wide as it is long. A number of small ponds and larger lakes make the place so calm, peaceful and relaxing not to mention the abundance of foliage it is home to. It is quite sweet (if you are lucky enough) to you see little ducklings emerge from the undergrowth as they obediently follow their mother duckling!
There is a pleasant café (with indoor and outdoor seating) based in a central location where you can buy hot and cold drinks, ice cream and hot food. I used to always go there when I was a child, recalling that I would play on the pool table each time!
A casual stroll through this natural landscape does you wonders and is certainly a walk to remember.

Wow, on a sunny day people sure do know how to kick back and relax! The best place to do this in liverpool has to be Sefton Park. Out of the city and into the countryside, or so it would seem!
Big open fields, winding tree-​lined paths, a boating lake (not that I’ve ever seen a boat on there), greenery galore. The Palm House is beautiful and having seen it in the midst of a deep snowy winter and it’s reflective crystal maze esque glory of summer, it’s always amazing.
Today, we were strolling around the lake and there wasn’t just one swan or two, but a whole family with their little cute baby signets just catchin’ the sun on the path and people were just sitting watching them, almost cooing in appreciation at them they were so gorgeous.
The park has also opened up a little café that serves yum stuff like rum and raisin and mint choc chip (my fave!) icecreams, coffees teas and lollies etc from a little glass pod on the edge of the lake, the seating outside gives a great view of the park to enjoy your surroundings and relax!
So pack a picnic or a barbie, throw down a tartan rug and soak up the sun in one of the most mesmerising parks in the world! (Well, in our lovely little Liverpool bubble anyway!)

Oh my. Oh my oh my. Liverpool has some great green spaces, parks that would be the envy of any discerning city in the world, let alone the UK, let alone the North West, and Sefton Park sure as heck is one of them. The thing stretches for miiiiiles in all corners, attracts all walks of life and harbours some little gems you might not have known about.
My brother used to play football here with my father when he was a kid, so I took a nostalgic trip here even though I was a mere plan on the horizon when my family were taking visits to this neck of the woods. When we toddled over here from Lark Lane, we weren’t quite expecting to get as caught up in the park as we thought we would. The first thing that greeted us were a group of students sprawled out on the grass, and bless them, times must have been hard because they had to share a cigarette. Fnar fnar. Anyway moving swiftly on, we found the families, kids and dogs that call this place their playground, the joggers and walkers that were out burning a few calories and generally anyone and everyone who was up for a bit of fresh air on a Wednesday afternoon.
Seriously. You stand in this park and you’d have no idea you were in the middle of a city. Lark Lane dwellers are lucky gits, I’ll say that much. Wandering on you’ll come to a little babbling brook, and here is where I lost my heart, and it’s remained there ever since. Have you ever seen ducks in springtime? HAVE you? Have you seen the little fluffy bright yellow babies that swim around kicking their tiny orange webbed feet around and chirping with pride? It is literally one of the most romantic sights you could ever wish to see. We were witness to a fabulous show too. There was drama. Mother Duck seemed distracted, she kept flying over a small group of rocks that separated the brook and acted as something of a waterfall. She was making a lot of noise and at first we thought she was trying to beckon her babies over. We thought one had followed her over. What had actually happened is that one had slipped over the little waterfall and was now on its own, bleating with fear and swimming in circles, so Mother Duck was frantic.
She sent a few adult ducks over there and they kept the baby company, however, her constant toing and froing to try and get the baby to follow her back over resulted in another baby thinking it was supposed to be over there too. It plopped over, saw the original baby and soon realised it had made a mistake. From then on, the two trapped babies stuck together like glue. They swam around practically holding wings, chirping worriedly. An audience had been attracted and onlookers were worried — one guy was getting ready to wade into the water and cup the ducks up to offload them back to the other side. However, these babies were now a team. They were determined to get over that mini waterfall and they padded onto the rocks with their tiny duckling feet and tried to hop over, resulting in the pair of them falling back to the wrong side. By now the crowd was making noises, encouraging them along. They tried it one more time, and this time they both made it over safely. We all applauded and cheered. Mother Duck came scurrying over quacking like a maniac, presumably chastising them, and brought them back to the rest of the group. Now she was keeping a watchful eye on them at all times, not letting the entire brood out of her sight.
Now, that’s a very long story and if you read it all then hopefully you were rewarded with the image of something extremely cute. If not, just know that Sefton Park is pure win for animal lovers, and the little ducks and the swans are great friends to go and treat with your stale bread leftovers. It’s fabulous fun.
A gem of Sefton Park is its famous Palm House, an incredible glass structure that’s toasty warm and home to some amazing plant and flower life. This too attracts a wide variety of people, from grandparents taking the little ones out to learn about plants to couples on romantic strolls. There are plenty of benches in there where you can rest your tired feet and drink in the gorgeous surroundings.
I’ve waxed on far too much about Sefton Park now. Just know that it’s a fantastic place and if you’re in Liverpool, particularly the already brilliant Lark Lane vicinity, you should head there as soon as you can.

Im glad after all these years that the palm house in Sefton Park, Liverpool as been restored to its former glory!
I remember being taken here as a child. When I went back there recently I took photographs of the inside of the Palm House for my work and was quite impressed with the variety and quality of the foreign plant life in there. Bands sometimes play here, also wedding receptions are held. I have a video on youtube of a Jazz concert performance by some talented young musicians…
Video link: