The huge new free-to-visit playground that’s just opened in famous Victorian park as part of £52million upgrade
A HUGE new playground has just opened in the UK as part of a huge multi-million revamp.
Forget it’s football team and towering transmitting station – Crystal Palace Park in London has opened a new playground right by the famous dinosaur sculptures.
The park features “hands-on play” with a “world shaped by scales, skeletons and stories from deep time”.
There are a number of pathways to explore with dinosaur-details as well as a few different shaped slides on the embankment.
A huge dinosaur-like skeleton also offers kids the chance to climb and hide, with the curving tail forming a play trail.
In the sandpit, which is shaped like a dinosaur’s footprint, young children can also dig and discover fossils.
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There’s also jumping discs, a log scramble and swings.
And a lot of features in the park are accessible including a wheelchair accessible roundabout, accessible swing and tactile games.
For parents wanting to rest and watch whilst their children play, there is a picnic area too.
The Dinosaur Playground is close to the main park toilets, as well as the cafe.
The new playground replaces an old one that had become rundown over the years.
After enjoying the new play park, make sure to head on the dinosaur trail to see around 30 Grade-I listed statues scattered across the park.
These are the world’s first life-sized prehistoric animal sculptures which were all inspired by fossils found by Victorian palaeontologists over 170 years ago.
Many of the dinosaurs look rather different to how we imagine dinosaurs now and that is because the statues were created from the scientific information Victorians had at the time.
It is free to visit the park as well as the sculptures, which can be found across islands and lakes in the park.
And by this summer, there will be a new £17.75million Visitor Centre.
It will be a single-storey and will have an ‘Interpretation and Activity Room’ which will showcase the park’s history and future through a number of displays, objects and information panels.
The park’s Grand Centre Walk is also being restored to create more space for events, with the path becoming wider and a new entrance being built at Penge Gate.
In total, the park’s revamp is expected to cost around £52million.
For more free attractions in the UK, these are the 20 most-visited attractions in England that are completely free to enter.
Plus, one of London’s most popular free attractions to get massive £231million upgrade.