Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Bexley


The London Borough of Bexley owns and maintains over 100 parks and open spaces within its boundaries, with a total of. They include small gardens, river and woodland areas, and large parks with many sporting and other facilities.

Large parks

Foots Cray Meadows

Foots Cray Meadows is an area of parkland and woodland 100 hectares in size, and the largest open space in the borough. It borders the suburbs of Albany Park, Sidcup, Foots Cray, North Cray and Ruxley. The River Cray runs through it in a north-easterly direction. The London Loop, a public recreational walking path around London, also known as the "M25 for walkers", runs through the meadows parallel to the river from Sidcup Place, just south of the meadows. The meadows contain two bridges across the River Cray: Five Arches bridge and the smaller Penny Farthing Bridge.
The Meadows are a Local Nature Reserve, and a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. They have also received a Green Flag Award.

Danson Park

Danson Park is situated between Welling and Bexleyheath. At 75 hectares, it is the second largest public park in the borough and the most used by the community. Opened in 1925, it is often considered the finest green open space in the borough, and is Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Hall Place

The Hall Place estate is 65 hectares of landscaped gardens and grounds set around a 16th Century Grade I Listed stately home, including a topiary lawn, herb garden, tropical garden and long herbaceous cottage garden-styled borders. The gardens were first opened to the public in 1952 by Katharine, Duchess of Kent. Topiary replicas of the Queen’s Beasts were planted in 1953 to mark the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Hall Place is a Grade I listed Historic Park, and has received a Green Flag Award for excellence in a public park or garden for 20 consecutive years from 1996 to 2016. The site is maintained by the Bexley Heritage Trust.

Lamorbey Park

Lamorbey Park is a 57 hectare park in Lamorbey, which was added to the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in 1988. Originally the estate consisted of 119 hectares belonging to William Steele, a director of the East India Company, but over time sections of the estate have been separated for other uses, including two secondary schools, Rose Bruford College, and Sidcup Golf Club. The area of the park still in public ownership includes The Glade, a 7.4 hectare area of historic landscape laid in the 1920s with a large lake that houses the Lamorbey Angling Society.

Other large parks

Lesnes Abbey Woods

Lesnes Abbey Woods is an 88 hectare area of ancient woodland to the south-east of Abbey Wood, named after the Lesnes Abbey ruins that lie within its area. It is adjacent to Bostall Woods. The area is a Local Nature Reserve, and includes the Abbey Wood geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, an important site for early Tertiary fossils.

Other areas

There are four designated Local Nature Reserves in Bexley, Crossness Nature Reserve, Danson Park Bog Garden, Foots Cray Meadows and Lesnes Abbey Woods.

Small parks and recreation grounds

Other small parks in the borough include: