5 /5 Tamali Basak: Gunnersbury park is on the way to Central London but I never thought it is a lovely hidden treasure in mid of busy crossroads. It is just off A4 road.
Though my destination was the Sports hub, I could not resist myself to explore the entire park. Talking about the sports hub, it is a multi facility sports lounge with some indoor and outdoor facilities. Other than using the toilet inside, I could not explore much on whats inside. From outside, it is quite a big building, so indoor facilities must have large space. I was stunned seeing the huge lush green field with multiple cricket pitches, nicely maintained but leaving the natural grass wherever possible. Far away, there are other game facilities like football, rugby etc which are equally big fields.
The park and the sports area are open for public so anyone can watch the ongoing matches keeping safe distances from others.
Just beside the sports lounge, there is a children play area as well with many activities to keep them active and engaged. It is a secured place surrounded by trees.
I was already spellbound to see this within the very urban surroundings but suddenly discovered a pathway beside the children area where people were walking or cycling. Followed that path and I started discovering a complete different world with big trees, bushes, ponds etc and also some historic ruins. I kept on moving and then found a white building with a fountain in the front. People were sitting and relaxing in front of it. It has a small patch of field where some sets were being prepared for some open air program (may be). There was a small cafe but it has some specific timing, I think it closes by 3 pm. There is a museum beside though I could not manage time to go inside. Saw some senior people were entering there. I just read some history about those buildings and started to walk to discover more. There is a big pool with ducks and swans swimming. Around the pool, there were many benches for meeting and chatting. There was an option to hire boats but it was late for me, they just closed their shop. Around the pool, some interesting facts were written for some movies that was shooted there.
I was already very high after finding the gems, but suddenly I found myself coming back to the sports hub again.
No worries, my time spent well and I was mesmerised already.
Another important thing - it has ample parking so nothing to worry. But one thing that concerned me is the entrance of the parking. The entry from the main road is really really narrow and just one car can pass through. Its very hard to manage if you see another oncoming car in front of you. Overall, I was very happy and its worthy to visit the place. I promise, you will not be disappointed at all.
