A Promising Name, Sadly Short on Elephants A delightful little green space near Elephant and Castle, and presumably a fine place to take the children — provided you have first explained that the name is not, in fact, a description of the attractions. The park is called Elephant Springs, which is a bold piece of branding. Take a six-year-old there without adequate preparation and they may reasonably expect to encounter elephants springing majestically from the ground, bounding through the flowerbeds, or perhaps leaping from some sort of municipal elephant fountain. Instead, you get a perfectly respectable playground. No elephants. Not even a small one. There are no herds of pachyderms cavorting beside the swings, no baby elephants bouncing on a trampoline, and apparently no provision whatsoever for elephant-related springing. It is, frankly, a serious failure of nomenclature. The children will naturally ask where the elephants are. You can explain that “Elephant” refers to Elephant and Castle, while “Springs” presumably refers to something considerably less exciting than a herd of airborne mammals. At this point, the educational value of the visit begins to compete rather successfully with the entertainment value. The playground itself is perfectly pleasant, but after promising Elephant Springs, expectations have been set somewhere between Disneyland and a David Attenborough documentary. A climbing frame and a slide are therefore going to seem somewhat under-resourced. Still, a nice place for a wander, a sit-down and some conventional playground activity. Would I take the children again? Yes. Would I tell them beforehand that there are no elephants? Absolutely. Would I recommend changing the name to something more accurate, such as “Elephant and Castle Ordinary Playground”? No. That would be far less exciting. Three stars: perfectly good park, spectacularly misleading elephant content.

Lovely natural style paddling pool with small waterfalls, slides, and sandy beach areas. Well shaded. Can get busy but always enough space to play.

Beautiful Peaceful Relaxing Highly recommended to unwind

Brilliant free day out for kids! Bring your picnic, sand and water gear for the kids and relax. There is no cover on really hot days...

Amazing place. The splash pool is very entertaining - there is sand, hammock, showers and slides. My toddler loved it. It is free. There was security around. They sometimes stop the water flow for 5-10 minutes to clean the sand though. Many eating places around. There is small play area also adjacent to splash area. A really fun day. I didn’t expect it to be good.