Alexandra Park

I walked over to Alexandra Park on a sunny Sunday morning to get some fresh air and was very impressed by the recent upgrade. It is a happy and community-​friendly park (if parks can be happy) with lots of space for sports, picnics, duck-​watching and general strollers. There is also a café for anyone needing a coffee-​stop. One of the best parks in the area.

I love this park. It was a huge deciding factor when I chose to move to Whalley Range, and I’m pleased to say I use it as much as I told myself I would when we moved in, which is very unlike me (see: gym membership, library card, yoga ball).
Alexandra Park is large enough that you can barely hear the traffic when you are in the centre, which I think is a must for all city parks. There is a duck pond, several play areas for children and marked distances for runners. The park has lots of little copses where you can lose yourself in the trees, and wide open spaces perfect for a kick about or a lazy Sunday picnic.
My favourite spots are around the sunken bowling green (now sadly disused, but a great area for lounging about nonetheless), and the long avenue of trees (pictured) which sees a canopy of branches criss cross above you.
It is a real treat to have such great parks in a metropolitan city, and I’m always reminded of New York when I jog through Alex Park. I like to run through the park in my antiquated running gear, listening to fairly embarassing running tunes, and pretend I am running through Central Park in a sitcom in the 90’s. It is most satisfying.
Alex park is currently recovering from some rather drastic refurbishments. Hundreds of trees were felled earlier in the year for various reasons that caused a lot of controversy. It was horrible to see trees being felled and chipped, but I’m pleased to say that wildlife and greenery is recovering well and some areas seem to be thriving now they have more space and light.
Nb: As with all parks, I would recommend avoiding visiting this park after dark as they can be much less friendly places.

In the whole of the United Kingdom, Alexandra Park Manchester comes second! Yep, that’s rights, out off the whole country, it’s the second best… in the category ‘parks called Alexandra Park’.
Beaten only by its London rival Alexandra Park, which features miles of hills and a palace, this medium sized green space in Moss Side can hardly complain about its ranking. Plus it couldn’t complain anyway because its a park not a person.
Apparently the park was an important space in the Victorian period, but I’ve forgotten what it was like then, so I’ll just focus on the now.
Basically it’s a big green space with some nice paths to stroll around and a nice little lake. More impressively is the fact that it plays home to an annual Caribbean Carnival! Less impressive that that but still worth of note is that it host many amateur football games an an annual 5K run.
For this kind of thing you’ll want the athletics webpage rather that the park one displayed above, that’s at :
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