Splash Pad Clissold Park

The splash pad at Clissold Park is what you'd hope for on a sweltering London afternoon - water jets, shallow pools, and enough chaos to keep kids entertained without requiring you to pack them off to a pricey theme park. It's free, which immediately makes it worth knowing about if you're staying anywhere within striking distance of Hackney.

What you're actually getting is a fairly standard but well-maintained water play area. Kids run through jets, there's a shallow pool that's genuinely refreshing rather than just a puddle, and on any decent day in summer you'll find the place heaving with families. It's not enormous - you could probably exhaust its novelty in an hour or so, depending on your child's threshold for boredom - but that's fine because you didn't pay to get in. Bring a change of clothes and a towel, obviously.

The park itself deserves a proper wander when the kids have had enough of the water. It's genuinely nice, with open grass, mature trees, and enough space to burn off energy without feeling like you're navigating someone's back garden. If you're staying at Lovat Parks five miles away, it's absolutely worth the short drive on a hot day. Lee Valley, also nearby, is a reasonable camp base too, though this is the sort of thing that justifies the trip on its own merits.

Go mid-week if you can. Weekends turn it into a proper scrum.