King George’s in Brentwood has a beautiful Country Park with plenty of green space and so much more to explore in the neighbouring Playing Fields park. There is a large playground, crazy golf, a splash pad, soft play, a sensory room, TAGactive, a skate park and an adventure play area. It has a huge range for all ages to try, but some activities require prebooking and paying for. There are also age restrictions (detailed below). The park recently had a multi million pound transformation and the new facilities are brilliant. 

Sometimes called King Georges Park, King Georges Play Fields and King George's Country Park.

King Georges Playing Fields has recently had a multi million pound makeover

Visiting King George’s Playing Fields 

Why King George’s Playing Fields is a good place to visit with children

There is so much to do that you can easily fill a whole day at the park. The recent investment has created state of the art facilities which will be enjoyed by children of all ages.  Between the playgrounds, skate park and woodland there is plenty to explore for free, however be prepared that your children will see the areas you need to pay to enter and they will probably want to go in those rather than just stay with the free activities.

There is plenty of woodland to explore at King George's Playing Fields

What Is there To Do At King George’s Playing Fields?

• Stroll through the woods of the country park. There are trails you can follow or you can just explore. It is popular with families for cycling.
• Play in the large playground. There are 3 areas each targeted at different age groups so there is plenty for little ones up to about age 10. 

  Playground at King George's Playing Fields

• Have a round of Crazy Golf at Rascal Bay. A family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children costs £25. The session lasts an hour. Under 16s must be accompanied by a paying adult. 

  Rascal Bay Crazy Golf in Brentwood

  
  

• Cool off in the Splash Pad. Sessions are 25 minutes long and cost £4.25 per child. It is open on days that are 15 degrees or higher.

  King George's Play Fields Splash Park

  
  

• Let off steam in soft play. Soft play costs £5.50 per person for an hour. The early and late sessions in the holidays are a discounted rate of £2. It is a large 2 storey soft play frame with a separate soft play area for toddlers. Suitable for children up to age 12.
• TAGactive is an indoor obstacle course which is great for children around age 9 upwards. Younger children are allowed to participate as long as they are over 1.2m (so about 7), but they will find some areas pretty challenging. When you complete the challenges you tap the tag with the sensor on your wrist and get points. Hair needs to be tied back and you need to have long sleeves and trousers as well as sensible shoes. It costs £7.50 per person per booking (you get 3 x 12 minute sessions in your hour). In the holidays there are some reduced priced sessions for early and late at £2. 

  The soft play is next to TagActive inside the pavillion in King George's park

  
  

• Wheel about the skate park. There are normally young children and families using the skate park with scooters.
• Climb high and explore the adventure play area. This is designed for children over 8 and you have to prebook and pay for entry (£2.50 per person). It’s not clear what the upper age limit is although adults can go on with their children. 

  The Adventure Play Area needs to be prebooked

  
  

• The sensory room is prebookable and sessions are divided between SEN users and babies (under 18 months). It costs £5.50 per person.
• There is also a bowling green, football pitches, rugby fields and a golf course.

  Bowling Green

  
  

• Hartswood is a 73 acre ancient woodland which runs along the Playing Fields. There is an access trail which makes it easy to use with pushchairs or wheelchairs. A footpath runs through Hartswood and links up with Thorndon Country Park (home of the Gruffalo Trail) and Little Warley and Childerditch Common.

This older map of the Playing Fields shows the woodland area you can explore

What Age Children Will Enjoy Visiting King George’s Playing Fields?

Different activities will appeal to different age groups. Babies can enjoy the sensory room, toddlers will enjoy the splash pad, soft play and some of the play areas and older children will enjoy all the activities so there is something to entertain children from toddlers through to age 12. It is brilliant that so many of the activities are aimed at children 8 plus as it can be hard to find activities for this age group.

The Adventure Playground and TAGactive are brilliant fun and allow for grown ups to join in the fun. Crazy Golf and family walks in the Country Park include all the family.

Is it suitable for pushchairs?

King George’s Playing Fields are definitely pushchair friendly and has tarmac paths. The Country Park hs a soft natural path so during wetter seasons this may make it harder to access with a buggy.

Follow a trail through the woodland or choose your own path

What You Need To Know Before Visiting King George’s Park

There is enough to do without doing any of the paid for activities, but the paid for activities are really good. If you live nearby maybe agree with your children that you will try a different activity each time you visit.

The price for multiple activities adds up and session times are short. To make the most of sessions you need to make sure children have eaten before hand and are ready to go at the start. Prebooking stops the activities getting too busy, but for some families it may be more relaxing to go to a soft play or splash pad without timed sessions. Check out this post for where to find soft play in Essex and this post for splash parks in Essex. 

The bookable activities (other than golf) are managed by Everyone Active on behalf of Brentwood Borough Council. Prebooking is required, although if there is availability you can book and pay onsite.

How To Book

To book the Splash pad, Soft Play, Tagactive, Adventure Play Area or Sensory Room you have to create a free account with Everyone Active. You can do this on their app or website (both of which can be frustrating). Once logged in you will be able to make bookings and see availability.

To book adventure golf at King George's go to the Rascal Bay website.

Another view of the Adventure Play Area for age 8 plus

King George's Park Opening Times

The King George's Playing Fields Pavillion is open 7am to 8pm, but the activities will have different availability (which you can see when you go to book them).

The Park is accessible all day.

The car parks have different opening hours seasonally. The main car parks charge for parking 6am to 7pm, however the Hartswood Road car park closes at 5pm in winter.

Facilities

Inside the pavilion there are toilets (including changing places accessible toilets) and baby changing facilities. There are also toilets by the children’s play area. Both sets have disabled toilets available.

There is food and drink available at the cafe inside the Pavilion. It offers hot and cold food options with snacks and drinks available too. Recent reviews of the hot food haven’t been very good, but when visiting recently we had no issues with the cold food and drinks. 

There are lots of areas to put down a blanket and have a picnic but they don’t have picnic tables. 

There is the Kiosk (next to the Splash Pad) which also serves drinks and snacks.

Is It Dog Friendly?

You can take your dogs into the Playing Fields and the Country Park but they can’t go into any of the activity areas so if you have younger children it would be easier to make dog walking and activity days separate.

The café serves hot and cold drinks

How To Get To King George’s Playing Fields and Where To Park

Address

King George’s Playing Fields, Ingrave Road, Brentwood, Essex CM13 2FD

The entrances to King George’s are in a residential area but it is well sign posted and very visible. 

Parking

Give yourself plenty of time for parking as the available car parks are small and get busy. After construction is complete there will be more car parking available.

There are currently 4 car parking areas available: 3 of the car parks are accessed through Ingrave Road and the other car park is at Hartswood Road. 

You can pay for parking by cash or via the PhoneAndPay App. We recommend taking change to park as the app isn’t very reliable. If you plan to use the App set it up before you visit. The car parks do have seasonal opening hours so you might want to check ahead of your visit if you are planning on visiting particularly early or late. More information here.

There are several car parks for King George's Playing Fields with different closing times

What is There To Do Nearby?

• The Gruffalo Trail is very close nearby and you can even walk to it via a footpath (or roughly 5 minutes to drive between car parks).
• Hopefield Animal Sanctuary is less than 10 minutes drive away.
• Calcott Hall Farm (2 miles) has Pumpkin Picking close to Halloween as well as a farm shop and cafe.
• Weald Country Park (home of the Stickman trail as well as ducks and deer you can feed) is 3 miles away.
• Old MacDonalds Farm & Fun Park is 5 miles away.
• Brentwood Ski & Snowboard Centre and Brentwood Karting are on the same site about 2 miles away.

If you are looking for other indoor activities in Essex check out this post.

Photographs & recommendations by Charlotte who can be found on Instagram here.