I went to Paddington Recreation Ground on a bright, warm day, and I got there the slow way. I took a double-decker through Kilburn, got off near Kilburn High Road, and walked the rest of the way through the side streets.
It is a good walk in. You pass old railway bridges and station buildings on the way, including some of the original Metropolitan Railway signs, which are a quiet reminder of how this part of London was put together.
Then the streets open out and you are at the gate. The recreation ground has been here since 1888, and it is a genuinely lovely place, especially if you are bringing children.
I arrived expecting a sports ground, because that is what the name suggests and that is what most of the coverage focuses on. What I did not expect was how much of the afternoon I would end up spending in the playground.
The Playground Is Where I Spent Most of My Time
The play area has clearly been rebuilt and extended over the years, and it is now split into several separate sections rather than one fenced square of equipment. There are slides, swings, climbing frames and, best of all, a set of wooden tree houses.
The tree houses were my favourite part. They are built on different levels and connected by tunnels and short slides, so children can keep moving between them instead of queuing for one piece of equipment. It is the kind of structure that holds a child’s attention far longer than a standard climbing frame.
There is a footbridge linking the different parts of the play area. You can walk across it and look down over the whole thing, which is genuinely useful if you are supervising more than one child at once.
There are plenty of swings too, including a double swing that was in constant use while I was there.
There Is a Little Train, and It Runs Around the Park
Towards the middle of the grounds there is a small train that takes passengers on a short circuit of the park. You buy a ticket and ride. It is aimed at children rather than adults, and on a sunny day it was one of the busiest things on the site.
It is worth planning into the visit rather than treating it as a surprise, because once children have seen it, that is where the next twenty minutes are going.
The Sensory Area and the Musical Panels
One part I had not read about anywhere beforehand is a sensory area built from coloured glass panels. As you move behind them the colours shift and overlap, and children were running back and forth through it working out how it changed.
Alongside it there are musical features, including panels you strike like a xylophone. It is a simple idea and it works, particularly for younger children who lose interest in climbing equipment quickly.
There is also a tunnel with a small window cut into the side, and another short slide nearby. None of these are large attractions on their own, but together they make the play area feel designed rather than assembled.
Open Grass, and the Streets Around It
Away from the play area there is a lot of open space, and on the day I visited it was full of people making the most of the weather. The houses around the edge of the park are worth a look as well. They give the whole place a settled, residential character that you do not get in the bigger central parks.
Running track, gym, fitness trail and exercise facilities make purposeful exercise central to the site.
Tennis, football, hockey, cricket, bowls and outdoor courts occupy a large part of the recreation ground.
Play space, café, toilets and open grass make shorter family visits straightforward.
The central green and quieter edges still allow an ordinary park visit without booking a court or joining a class.
The 400-Metre Track Changes Who Comes Here
A proper athletics track inside a neighbourhood park is not especially common in central London. At Paddington Recreation Ground, it is one of the features that gives the site a distinct identity.
Not Just for Athletics Clubs
Everyone Active currently describes the running track as available for anyone to use.
That makes it useful for visitors who want something more controlled than running around a busy pavement or trying to measure intervals along a park path.
The flat 400-metre circuit particularly suits interval training, timed laps and sessions where distance matters.
Why Runners Notice It
Its value is practical: a measured outdoor track inside a public park, within easy reach of central London.
That practical reputation matters more than the track being visually impressive.
It also changes the atmosphere around the park. Exercise here often looks intentional rather than incidental. People are not necessarily jogging through on the way somewhere else; many have arrived specifically to train.
Tennis Is Almost a Park Within the Park
Paddington Recreation Ground currently has 13 floodlit tennis courts using tarmac and synthetic surfaces.
The scale is significant. Westminster’s 2026 outdoor sport assessment recorded more than 31,000 hours of use across these courts, overwhelmingly from casual bookings, and reported that the site’s tennis provision experiences very high demand.
In practical terms, this is not a place where someone planning an evening match should simply arrive and assume a court will be available.
Thirteen floodlit courts, with current booking availability generally between 8am and 9pm. Some courts can also support netball.
A cricket pitch remains a visual and historical centre of the recreation ground, supported by four practice nets.
Floodlit multi-purpose pitches accommodate full-size and smaller-sided football as well as hockey use.
A bowling green, multi-use courts and outdoor table tennis broaden the park beyond its most obvious sports.
Some sports facilities require advance booking or payment even though general entry to the recreation ground is free. Current availability and charges should therefore be checked through Everyone Active rather than assumed from general park opening hours.
This Sporting Character Is Not a Recent Reinvention
Paddington Recreation Ground formally opened in April 1888, following a local campaign associated particularly with Richard Beachcroft of Paddington Cricket Club.
The Victorian pavilion survives and was renamed the Richard Beachcroft Pavilion in 2010 in recognition of his role in establishing the recreation ground.
The site’s creation was tied from the beginning to public recreation and sport. That makes the modern running track, cricket, tennis and football facilities feel less like additions imposed on an old ornamental park and more like a continuation of what the ground was intended to do.
Westminster’s own historical material also records that the recreation ground was developed partly to provide work during a period of unemployment and to secure a large recreational space for the local community.
The Central Green Keeps Sport from Taking Over Completely
With such a long facilities list, Paddington Rec can sound more like an outdoor leisure centre than a park.
On the ground, the central green changes that impression.
Cricket gives the open space a traditional visual focus, particularly in season, while grass and mature trees prevent every square metre from being programmed for organised activity.
This is where a visitor who has no interest in booking sport can still make sense of the place. Sitting with coffee, reading, meeting someone or taking a short walk does not require participation in anything.
The surrounding mansion blocks also give the landscape a contained neighbourhood feeling. Unlike Hyde Park, there is little sense that visitors are crossing the recreation ground as part of a major tourist route through London.
A Family Visit Works Because the Essentials Are Close Together
Having spent most of my visit in the play area, I would rate it higher than the usual neighbourhood playground. It is not the scale of the largest destination play parks in London, but the variety packed into it, tree houses, tunnels, sensory panels and the train, does more than the footprint suggests.
Children have dedicated play provision while open grass provides space beyond fixed equipment.
The onsite café means a family visit does not require leaving the grounds for every drink, snack or simple meal.
Public toilets include accessible facilities, making longer stays easier to manage.
The mix is particularly useful for families with children of different ages. A younger child may use the playground while an older sibling has a sports session nearby.
That is a different strength from a park built around one spectacular children’s attraction.
Two Blue Plaques Worth Finding
Paddington Rec keeps its most interesting content on a brick wall rather than on a noticeboard, and most visitors walk past both.
Sir Roger Bannister trained here
The City of Westminster plaque records that while a medical student at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School from 1951 to 1954, Roger Bannister trained on the cinder track on this site in preparation for the first sub-four-minute mile, run at Oxford on 6 May 1954.
A second, much longer bronze plaque underneath was unveiled by Bannister himself on Good Neighbours Day, 10 September 2000, and it is the one worth stopping to read. It records that Bannister trained here alongside Chris Brasher and Christopher Chataway, the two men who would pace him. It notes that his rival, the Australian John Landy, had begun to think the barrier was impossible.
The detail that lands hardest is the training constraint: because of his medical studies, Bannister could only train for an hour each day. On the day itself, Brasher and Chataway led the first three laps, Bannister took the final one in 59 seconds, and crossed in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, beating Gunder Hägg’s 4:01.3, which had stood since 1945.
And a second plaque, added in 2025
Nearby is a much newer City of Westminster plaque honouring sprinter Bianca Williams, unveiled on 13 March 2025. It lists Olympic Silver in the women’s 4x100m relay in 2024, Commonwealth Gold in the same event in 2018 and 2022, and Commonwealth Bronze over 200m in 2014.
The wording matters: it describes her as a Westminster Champions of the Future athlete who regularly trained at Paddington Recreation Ground. Seventy years separate the two plaques, and both were earned on the same ground.
The Park Was Built as Unemployment Relief
The history board near the track tells an origin story that has almost nothing to do with leisure.
This 27-acre site first opened in 1888 and was the first park with an athletics ground of its kind in London. Before that the land was used by the local church, which had laid out a cricket pitch for the parish.
In the 1880s Paddington Cricket Club was struggling to find playing fields as London expanded. A campaign led by cricket enthusiast Richard Beachcroft secured nine acres after considerable effort. Then the harsh winter of 1887 to 1888 brought economic hardship and unemployment, and the local MP, Lord Randolph Churchill, convened a committee to address local relief.
The park was conceived as a work creation scheme. Five hundred unemployed Paddington residents were employed for ten weeks preparing the ground before it opened, partly funded by Beachcroft himself, who recouped costs by leasing portions to clubs.
The pavilion still standing today opened at the same time as the park and was renamed The Richard Beachcroft Pavilion in 2010, with a commemorative plaque on the building.
Five Numbered Gates, and Why That Matters
The park has five named entrances, and the signage numbers them rather than describing them, which is useful once you know the system.
- Gate 1, Randolph Avenue, signed as Randolph Churchill
- Gate 2, Grantully Road
- Gate 3, Carlton Vale, the parking side
- Gate 4, Essendine Road
- Gate 5, Morshead Road
Each gate carries the same map, so it is worth reading the one you arrive at rather than walking in and guessing. The track and pitches sit towards the north of the site; the ornamental garden, café and quieter planted areas are towards the south and centre.
Opening Times, From the Gate Signs
These are posted at every entrance and are shorter than many London parks:
- Monday to Friday: 7:00am to 9:30pm
- Saturday and Sunday: 7:00am to 8:30pm
The signs add that times vary for individual facilities and during bank holidays, and that CCTV operates across the site. For accident, illness or incident assistance, the posted reception number is 020 7644 6880.
The Ornamental Garden Has Its Own Rules
This is a separately signed enclosure rather than just a planted corner, and the restrictions are stricter than the rest of the park.
No bicycles or scooters. Ball games are permitted on pitches only, not here. No barbecues, parties or alcohol.
Given how sports-led the rest of Paddington Rec is, this garden is where the park becomes somewhere to sit rather than somewhere to train.
The Café, and One Rule About Dogs
The Park Café sits centrally near the main paths, with outdoor seating and signposting to the other facilities from the same junction.
Worth knowing before you arrive with a dog: the café area is signed guide dogs only. Dogs are welcome in the wider park, but not in that enclosure.
Opening Hours Need a Little Care
Westminster’s general parks information lists Paddington Recreation Ground as opening from 7am, with seasonal closing times applying across council parks.
Everyone Active separately publishes operating hours for the managed recreation and leisure facilities.
Because individual courts, buildings and facilities can follow their own schedules, it is better to check the relevant activity rather than treating one published time as applying to everything inside the gates.
Toilets Are Better Documented Than at Many London Parks
Westminster lists public toilets at Paddington Recreation Ground, including accessible provision and RADAR Key access.
Current council listing: 7:00am–8:50pm.
Current council listing: 8:00am–7:50pm.
Westminster notes that seasonal variations apply, so these times should be checked if toilet availability is essential.
Accessibility Is Strongest Around the Managed Facilities
Westminster identifies the recreation ground as having disabled access and accessible toilets.
Everyone Active gives more detailed information for the leisure centre, including three accessible parking bays, automatic entrance doors, accessible entrance gates, a low-level reception desk and an accessible café area.
Assistance animals are also welcome within the centre’s accessibility arrangements.
The recreation ground is relatively compact compared with London’s very large parks, which can reduce the distance between facilities. Individual sports areas may still have their own access arrangements, so a specific booked activity is worth checking beforehand.
Getting There: Maida Vale Is the Useful Reference Point
Despite its name, Paddington Recreation Ground is in Maida Vale, north of Paddington station itself.
The most useful Underground reference for many visitors, on the Bakerloo line.
Randolph Avenue, London W9 1PD.
The surrounding residential streets provide several approaches, so the best entrance depends on which side of Maida Vale you are coming from.
The location is particularly convenient for residents of Maida Vale, Kilburn Park and nearby north-west Westminster.
There Is Parking, but Public Transport Is Usually Simpler
Westminster lists a car park among the recreation ground’s facilities, and Everyone Active confirms accessible parking provision.
However, parking availability should not be assumed during busy sporting periods.
For visitors already travelling within London, the Bakerloo line and local buses remove the need to coordinate a park visit with a limited number of spaces.
What Kind of Visit Works Best?
A neighbourhood walk, coffee or a few laps of the grounds without using booked facilities.
A focused running session, playground visit or casual outdoor break.
A tennis booking, cricket practice or family visit followed by food at the café.
Makes most sense when participating in organised sport, classes or combining several activities.
There is little reason to force Paddington Rec into a half-day sightseeing itinerary. Its strength is that a useful visit can be short.
Who Is Paddington Recreation Ground Best For?
Runners are one of the clearest audiences because of the proper 400-metre athletics track.
Tennis players benefit from an unusually large concentration of floodlit courts, although high demand makes booking important.
Local families get a combination of play, toilets, café and open space without needing to navigate a huge park.
People staying around Maida Vale may find it more practically useful than travelling across London to a famous park simply for an hour outdoors.
Visitors primarily interested in ornamental gardens, major landmarks or wildlife will probably find stronger alternatives elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Paddington Recreation Ground free?
General entry to the recreation ground is free. Some sports facilities, classes and court bookings have separate charges.
Does Paddington Recreation Ground have a running track?
Yes. It has a 400-metre athletics track, which Everyone Active currently states is available for anyone to use. Check current access before travelling specifically for a track session.
How many tennis courts are there?
There are currently 13 floodlit tennis courts using tarmac and synthetic surfaces. Demand is high, so booking in advance is sensible.
Is there a playground at Paddington Recreation Ground?
Yes, and it is bigger than the name of the park suggests. It is split into zones with slides, swings, climbing equipment, wooden tree houses on several levels, a connecting footbridge and a sensory area with colour panels and musical features.
Is there a train for children?
Yes, a small ride-on train runs a circuit of the park. Tickets are bought on the day and it is aimed at children rather than adults.
Are there public toilets?
Yes. Westminster lists public toilets with accessible facilities and RADAR Key access. Opening hours differ between weekdays and weekends and seasonal variations can apply.
Is Paddington Recreation Ground suitable for wheelchair users?
The site has disabled access, accessible toilets and accessible provision around the leisure centre, including automatic doors, accessible gates and designated parking bays.
Is it actually near Paddington station?
The recreation ground is in Maida Vale rather than immediately beside Paddington station. Maida Vale on the Bakerloo line is a more useful Underground reference for most visits.
For a much larger park within walking distance, The Regent’s Park offers formal gardens and boating rather than a sports-led landscape.
How This Guide Was Put Together
Written after a personal visit to Paddington Recreation Ground. All photographs on this page are my own, taken on site.
The Bannister and Bianca Williams plaques, the history board, the gate numbering, the posted opening times, the Ornamental Garden rules and the guide dogs only notice at the cafe were all read on site during the visit. The playground, tree houses, footbridge, little train, sensory panels and musical features are described as I found them on the day.
Facilities, court bookings, track access and accessibility were checked afterwards against City of Westminster and Everyone Active information. The 1888 opening and the Richard Beachcroft Pavilion were cross-checked with Westminster material and Historic England.
Opening times, court access, prices, train rides and facility availability can change, so confirm with the operator before travelling if one particular activity is the reason for the trip.
Last checked: 18 September 2026
Official & Useful Sources
Author
Steve visits every park featured on EKS Parks in person, checking practical details against councils, park operators and official sources. Every guide is based on a personal visit, and the photographs published with it are his own.
About Steve