Beale Park

What a nice park. I would say this park is especially great if you love flowers, statues/​sculptures, ponds/​lakes and birds, Such a pleasant park to have picnic at. You can see many different species of birds in well designed big averies, meerkats, racoons, guinea pigs, goats, monkies etc. There is also a train for the family to go on which takes you around the park in one trip and there is plenty of play areas and even a paddling pool for the children. Also from time to time they have model boat events where you can see amazing model boats such as a war ship, titantic etc speeding along the waters. Whilst there I also ate a scone in the café and it was nice and hot with a good brand of jam even the tea was nice. Highly recommend.

It’s good fun and good for kids to see so many animals!

Updated: Apr 2013
Visited again and am pleasantly surprised for 2013. They have a new kids area which replaces the ageing sand pit, which has moved. It now seems much brighter and more activities for toddlers and young children. Also there is a re-​entrance offer for only £5 if you come back to visit later in the year.
Food area has been remodelled so there are more tables in the open plan eating area. Only thing for comment is that during busy periods the tables can be scarce as people can picnic on tables by the restaurant also. Aug 2012
We went here with my 16 month old. I think the facilities on offer are good. There’s an indoor Little Tikes area for under 5’s with a good selection of slides and toys. Outside there’s a good climbing frame area for older kids. We did come here on a bank holiday weekend and the place was lively. You can bring you own picnic here to keep costs down, but the restaurant seemed fairly efficient as well.

Visited beale park the other day, the park was not busy and as far as the animal collection go’s there’s not much there. many of the enclosures were empty. the grounds are nice but nothing special.
£9.00 adults
£6.50 children

One of our Abingdon office’s top 5 family days out. Beale Park Wildlife Park and Gardens nestles on the banks of the River Thames near Reading. They have a unique collection of rare and endangered birds and animals including lemurs, meerkats, wallabies and prairie dogs.

This small wildlife park, tucked away near Pangbourne is easy to find, has plenty of parking and — despite it’s size — swallows up a lot of visitors.
Unlike one of the mammoth places — like London Zoo — you can spend a comfortable day here without feeling like you’re sprinting from exhibit to exhibit.
The train-​ride to start is a lovely idea — to get your bearings — and kids of all ages will have no problem in coping with the distance.
Not only, but also, you can finish your trip by letting the kids have a splash around in the large paddling pool whilst you enjoy a drop of senior Tizer from the bar.

Great place to take the kids and as we’re local, have had a season ticket for the last two years.
Large (and separate) play areas for children of all ages. Little Tikes area is great for toddlers and youngsters with lots of play houses, cars and trikes to play on.
The park has been making continual improvements to the animal areas in the park and there is now a fab viewing gallery for the mongoose, meerkats and prairie dogs with disabled access and also glass panels so kids can easily see what’s going on. Hopefully over the coming years they will continue to make improvements to the animal viewing for small children.
There are two paddling pools as well for the kids so a great place for them to cool down when/​if we get good weather.
There is a train ride included in the ticket price, but the small steam engine only seems to operate during busy times.
Beautiful grounds though and some lovely walks.
Downside the food is pretty expensive for what it is and not very appetising. Children’s sandwich meals are not good value for money compared with similar establishments. However, there is lots of space (tables and grass) for to take your own picnic.
Toilets are some distance from the Little Tikes play area so if you’re potty training, it can end up being a frantic dash across the park.

I really really like Beale Park — it’s the child in me I think ;)
They have super-​cool monkeys (which you can adopt), fabulous llamas which have been known to spit at people who get overly-​friendly (hilarious!) and really really beautiful grounds.
I can walk round the gardens for hours on end, obviously with picnic stops in between! There are some café’s too though.
Highly recommended for a family day out in the summer.

I recently went back to Beale Park having visited there many times as a child. It was quite disappointing. Admittedly we went during the off season but there were a lot of empty cages and very few animals around in general. The peacocks still walk around the site which is cool, but in general it looked quite tired and tatty. Perhaps better for very small children, but they may get easily tired or bored walking for quite a long time before seeing anything.

My husband grew up in Reading and he and his friends have all spoken at length and with great affection of Beale Park (or Child Beale as I believe it used to be called). We decided to visit there some time ago and I have to say I was rather disappointed (as was my husband). Although the animals were great it seemed like there was an awful lot of ground to cover for very few animals, it also all looked rather old and tired.
Maybe we were being a little too harsh, I am sure children would love all the animals and the open spaces to let off some steam, if nothing else it would make for a nice walk in the park with a picnic lunch.

The very first time I visited Beale Park was with my son who was 20 months old at the time and my breath was taken away by how absolutely beautiful it was. I have since taken my inlaws who live in Liverpool and they were very impressed with it too.
There is a huge car park and toileting facilities within the park itself.
It is fantastic for children as it is a very safe environment and they can happily wander round with you just keeping a watchful eye on them. The wildlife just wanders around your feet and there feeding station dotted about everywhere (which require a 20p coin) to feed the birds and the huge carp that swim round in the lovely ponds and lakes that are dotted around.
There is plenty of seating, benches, picnic tables for you to relax and just take in the scenery. As for the children there is a Little Tikes Outdoor Play Area, an Indoor Little Tikes Play Area, two sandpits, two good sized paddling pools, a train ride and an older outdoor play area for the older children. There is also a small shop and boat rides available.
On top of all that you can spend hours following the trails to visit the multitude of animals at the park including the ever popular Meercats and there is also a children’s farm with the usual farmyard animals.
The only downpoint is the food. There is a large restraunt which serves hot and cold food but is VERY expensive and we never use this but prefer to take a picnic as there are plenty of places to sit and eat.
I can highly recommend this for all ages but particularly for families as it has so much to offer and well worth the entry price as a full and happy day can be spent here.

Great family day out; lots for the children to see & do.
Paddling pools, sand pit, play areas for children of all ages.
Small train giving rides around the park.
Lots of picnic tables.
No arcades or ‘funfair’ rides.
Small gift shop. Food is available.
Lots of animals for children to learn about (sheep, goats, lamas, kangaroos & lots of birds)