Coram's Fields has a wide variety of activities including extensive lawns for free play (and very suitable for family picnics), artificial turf sports pitches, a paddling pool, sandpits, a flying fox and other slides, a pets corner (with sheep, goats, ducks, hens and much more), vegetarian cafe, a nursery and drop-ins for under 5's as well lots of other organised activities.

Living in London I am always looking for free or cheap days out with my 2 grandchildren, especially as my grandaughter has Special Educational Needs. After visiting the Coram Fields website it sounded as if it fitted the bill, so picnic in hand we went. The entrance is not obvious, and my sense of direction probably didn't help, but it took us some time to find it. There was a guard on the gate to ensure that only adults with children entered - good start - and although there are indeed wonderful wide open spaces with lovely playgrounds and attractions which any child will love - it was just quite badly maintained - it has a lovely adventure area with big slides, fabulous swings and a lovely sensory area with musical instruments, and it also has an area with sheep, goats, hens, rabbits and guinea pigs. The grass area was immense with 2 sand pit areas and there was another large concrete area where a paddling pool will presumably be in use in the warmer weather. The little cafe was lovely with reasonable prices for coffee and they did very cute baby cinos (warm frothy milk with chocolate powder on top) for only 80p. But as I looked around what could and should have been an amazing area, all I could see was that it is badly maintained. The grass area is patchy, the area where the animals were was not very well accessible for children, no obvious hand washing facilities nearby - which was a worry, and no obvious member of staff was available when a sheep managed to get out of his pen and make a dash for it! After visiting areas such as the Peter Pan park in Kensington Gardens which is a regular haunt of ours, it was just a bit disappointing that an area with so much potential has clearly not been looked after particularly well. I believe it is a charitable trust - so I will put it down to lack of financial support. All in all the children did enjoy themselves, and asked if we could go back again when the paddling pool was open - so I'll give it another go but as a review I would say yes go, bring a picnic, but be prepared as it's not quite as charming as advertised on their website.

- SHeila Malone / April 2010

http://www.coramsfields.org/