Crosby Beach
A hundred cast-iron men stare out to sea along two miles of sand - Antony Gormley's Another Place, and the strangest, most memorable free afternoon on this coast. Sand, statues, ships from the port gliding past.
Coronation Park
Crosby, Merseyside
Coronation Park is a neighbourhood park in the middle of Crosby that punches above its size. Sefton's own description runs to play area, tennis courts and a model boating lake, and it holds one of the borough's seven Green Flag awards, alongside Botanic Gardens, Hesketh Park, Lord Street Gardens, Derby Park, North Park and Hatton Hill.
Green Flag is a maintenance standard as much as anything, which in practice means the bins get emptied, the grass gets cut and the paths are not a mud bath in October. There is no cafe and no toilet block listed, and Sefton do not list a car park either, so it is a park you walk to. Treat it as an hour before or after something else in Crosby, not the whole day.
Know before you go
- The boating lake is the bit that holds a small child's attention longer than the swings. Take something that floats.
- Alexandra Park is ten minutes away on College Road and shares a friends group with this one. If Coronation is busy, that is your quiet fallback, though it is trees and paths and nothing else.
Looking for more parks & outdoors near Crosby?
Also in Crosby
Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre
Sefton's watersports centre on Crosby Marine Lake, with pay and play paddle sessions in season and the Gormley iron men on the beach over the road. More of a booked-session place than a turn-up attraction, so plan before you drive.
Crosby Leisure Centre
Two pools a hundred yards from the beach, the smaller one shallow enough for a child who is still learning. On Tuesdays the main pool gets Atlantis Splash, a full length inflatable obstacle course.
Rimrose Valley Country Park
A long country park running south from Crosby between the Leeds and Liverpool canal and the railway: paths, meadows, reedbeds and the Brookvale nature reserve with its boardwalks. Free, open, no charge to park.
Victoria Park, Waterloo
Waterloo's big multi-use park, with a skate park tucked in the corner by the railway line and sport pitches across the rest. Sefton list play facilities too, but check before you promise a playground.