Swan pedal boats
Half an hour on the main lake in a two- or four-seat pedalo, weekends and school holidays only.
In 1873 a wealthy heiress named Louisa Ryland handed Birmingham a stretch of meadow along the River Rea on one condition: that it stay a park for the people, for good. A century and a half on, the promise has grown into roughly 250 acres (about a square kilometre) only three kilometres south of the city centre, with a Grade II* listing on the register of historic parks. Nobody crosses the country for it. What it does is redeem a family's day in industrial Birmingham: a big lake, a Victorian promenade of tidy flower beds, and a working woodland inside the city. The park has two halves with two characters. The end nearest Edgbaston Road is the groomed part: the main lake where swan pedal boats are hired (£14 for a two-seater and £19 for a four-seater per half hour, running on weekends and school holidays, weather permitting), a 36-hole mini-golf course, a land train that loops the park (£3 for adults), playgrounds and a small paid fun park. The far end along the River Rea is conservation woodland and earth paths that stay quiet even on the busiest summer Sunday. In the middle stands the Golden Lion, a timber inn from the early 1500s that was moved beam by beam from Deritend, on the edge of the city centre, in 1911; after decades of neglect behind a fence, restoration work finally began in 2025, and there is still no date for going inside. What lifts it above a pleasant park is the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) inside its bounds: free galleries, a cinema and theatre, a café and plenty of toilets, and a genuine refuge when the rain sets in. On the Pershore Road edge of the park sits Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, small and paid and best suited to children under ten. The main paths are tarmac and flat, so pushchairs are easy; buses 45 and 47 run from the city centre along Pershore Road in about fifteen minutes, or drive to the Russell Road or Queen's Ride (Edgbaston Road) car parks (£2.70 for two hours, £6 for the day). In the English summer holidays, and above all on sunny Sundays, the car parks fill before noon and the boat queue lengthens; arriving before ten solves both. In winter the park is still a fine walk, but the boats and train stop and it is dark by half past four. Entry is free whatever the season.
Half an hour on the main lake in a two- or four-seat pedalo, weekends and school holidays only.
Free galleries, a café and a theatre inside the park that rescue the day when it rains.
An early-1500s timber inn moved here in 1911, viewed from behind the fence only.
Russell Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8RD
With children, yes without hesitation: Birmingham's central squares are small and have nothing like the lake, boats, train and playgrounds here, and it is a fifteen-minute bus ride. A couple without children and short on time can skip it; this is a very good neighbourhood park, not a landmark.
No. They mostly run on weekends and school holidays from spring to autumn, weather permitting; from November to March the park stays open for walks and MAC stays open, but the paid activities are shut on most days.