Danson Park: Boating Lake & Danson House Guide

Good morning everyone, it’s Steve here. Today I decided to take a walk around Danson Park and see what I could find.

I started around Danson House, the beautiful old manor house that sits looking out over the lake. There’s a café at the bottom where you can get tea, cakes and drinks and sit outside while enjoying the view, which felt like the right way to start the walk before getting into everything else.

The Old English Garden

Just next to the house is the Old English Garden, and I really liked this part. Lovely flower beds, green plants, benches, and a nice walkway with pillars running through it. There’s also a sundial with benches set around it, a good spot to just sit for a minute.

I got talking to one of the volunteers while I was there, and it turns out the garden has been maintained by volunteers for eleven years now. They look after the plants and flower beds themselves, while the council takes care of the paths and cuts the grass. They also run plant sales to raise money, which goes straight back into the garden.

Down to the Lake

After the garden, I walked down towards the lake. Lots of ducks around the water, and the trees hanging over the edges looked beautiful in the morning light. You can see the boats lined up along the water, and there’s a second café here too, where you can grab a drink and sit down by the lake itself.

There’s a boathouse with a function room upstairs, and while I was there I watched people playing on the renovated tennis courts nearby. There’s also a bowls area close by, and even a crazy golf course tucked into that same part of the park.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

Danson Park has quite a lot going on beyond what I covered on this walk. The Rock Garden near the house was locked up when I passed, gates padlocked with a warning about deep water and mud, so don’t promise it to anyone before checking. The Wet Woodland further round is deliberately closed off too, a proper nature reserve you read about from behind a fence rather than walk through, home to birds like kingfisher, water rail and grey wagtail.

Swimming isn’t allowed in the lake itself, even though the boats and watersports can make it look like a general water-play spot. If the family wants to get wet, the splash park is the place for that instead. Fishing is allowed on the south bank with a permit, but not between 15 March and 15 June while the season is closed.

Getting There

Danson House and the lake are roughly a 20-minute walk from either Bexleyheath or Welling rail station, so both are reasonable starting points depending on which side of the park you’re coming from. Local buses also run along the roads bordering the park; it’s worth checking live TfL information on the day, since individual routes and stops can shift.

Opening Hours, Parking and Accessibility

The park itself is open 24 hours a day, all year round, but that doesn’t mean every facility inside it is. Toilets near the house, lake and playground currently close at 6:00pm between April and September, and at 4:00pm the rest of the year. Boat hire, tennis, the splash park and the cafés all keep their own separate hours on top of that, so it’s worth checking the specific thing you’re planning around rather than assuming the park’s round-the-clock access applies to everything.

Parking is free most of the year, but Bexley charges on weekends and Bank Holidays between April and September, so it’s worth checking the signage on arrival rather than assuming. Accessible toilets and baby-changing facilities are available near the playground and the Mansion, and several of the fishing platforms on the south bank are specifically built to be usable by disabled anglers.

Frequently Asked Questions