The paddling pool
A 1930s reservoir turned children's pool, open typically late May to early September and busy in the school holidays.
Twenty minutes on foot from the middle of Southampton, a real wood begins: roughly 148 hectares of oak, reed bed, ponds and open grassland, split down the middle by The Avenue, the tree-lined road that has had trees deliberately planted along it since the 1760s. This is not a designed garden of the stately-home kind. It is medieval common land where townspeople grazed their cattle, opened as a public park in 1844 and still stubbornly wild at the edges. Most of it, around 90 hectares, has been a Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1987 on the strength of one of Britain's largest populations of the great crested newt, which is why the ponds and rough grass are left alone rather than mown into submission. Cemetery Lake on the western side, beside the Old Cemetery along Hill Lane, is where the birdwatchers gather; across the Common towards The Avenue sit the Ornamental Lake and the old boating lake where model yachts are still sailed. At the southern end, the Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre occupies the site of the old city zoo, closed in 1985, with a café, toilets and modest displays for children, though its hours can change and it is worth checking before relying on it. For families the point of the visit is the paddling pool and fountain near the southern end, a 1930s conversion of an old reservoir that opens only in the summer months, typically late May to early September, and fills up in July and August when the city's schools are out. Beside it is a nature play area with water pumps, a zip wire and a climbing tower, and endless grass for a picnic. The main paths are surfaced and fine for pushchairs; the inner trails between the trees turn to mud after rain, which is a good argument for old trainers over anything smarter. To be plain about it: this is a green lung the locals love more than a sight tourists travel for. If you are in Southampton for a night before a cruise, or breaking a drive to Stonehenge or the Isle of Wight ferry, it is a generous place to let children run after hours in the car, and anyone wanting two hours of walking with no tickets and no queues will leave content. Nobody, though, should make the journey to Southampton for it. In winter the days are short and the ground waterlogged, so go in the morning and keep to the surfaced routes.
A 1930s reservoir turned children's pool, open typically late May to early September and busy in the school holidays.
The quietest corner, where birdwatchers settle on the western side beside the Old Cemetery, well away from the traffic on The Avenue.
Around 90 protected hectares thanks to the great crested newt; unsurfaced inner paths that turn muddy after rain.
Cemetery Road, Southampton SO15 7NN
No, unless you have children who need to run off a long drive. With a single day, the medieval walls, the old town and the waterfront come first; the Common suits people staying nearby or anyone after a long free walk.
Yes; the main car park is on Cemetery Road by the Hawthorns centre at the southern end, with a smaller one by the Cowherds pub off The Avenue. Both are limited and fill on Saturday mornings for the weekly parkrun and on hot summer weekends.