Rosebery Street, Bedford

Grand Promenade Reserve, Bedford

Grand Promenade Reserve is a leafy park in the City of Bayswater. It has a great sand-based playground with a mixture of equipment for a range of ages.

If your child likes to climb, they’ll likely enjoy this playground. With ladders, a rope web and a small climbing wall, as well as a balancing beam course, there is lots to exercise little muscles. My Miss 4.5 was straight up the climbing wall and up a ladder made up of small platforms from the moment we arrived. When she wasn’t climbing, she was jumping off into the sand below.

The play structure also features two slides, a twisty slide and a straight, bumpy slide.

On the upper levels, there are educational elements such as a numbers matching game and a shape matching game. Miss 4.5 was particularly taken with the shapes game. These would be particularly good for kindy and pre-primary aged kids who are just beginning to associate the words with the shapes and numbers.

Under the bridge in the middle of the play structure, we were excited to find an arched set of monkey bars. We hadn’t seen monkey bars set up like this before, and Miss 4.5 spend a bit of time trying to swing off all of them. Even the middle bar which was out of reach.

Another bit she loved was the flying fox. It’s only small compared to some of the amazing flying foxes out there, but she enjoyed that she could just about reach it on her own, and then zipping back and forth with a bit of help from me. Bigger kids would enjoy it even more though as they wouldn’t need a boost up from an adult.

There are a pair of swings, a toddler swing and a regular swing, here for kids who love their swings. These were popular with another couple of kindy aged girls who visited at the same time.

There was also a small ice cream shop next to the balancing beams. This was perfect for some fun imaginative play between Miss 4.5, the other little girls and their grandmother.

Near the clubhouse, we found a sand funnelling game. There were two funnels, and a set of half pipes mounted on this wall for kids to scoop sand up into. They can then watch as sand falls either through a water-wheel, down a clear pipe to a platform or down the angled half pipes. It was a bit windy the day we went, so it didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. On a calmer day however I can see it being loads of fun for kids to play with.

Adjacent to the playground is a covered metal picnic table and a water fountain that is suitable for both people and dogs. If you follow the path around behind the club house, there is an Exeloo available. It was nice and clean when we visited, but was lacking loo paper. So probably best to go prepared with some paper or wipes in your bag, just in case.

Beyond the playground and the toilets is a large, green oval. This appears well cared for with a City of Bayswater maintenance person out mowing the day we visited. This would be great for kicking a football around, having a game of cricket or just running around with the family dog. With a flat path running from the little car park around the clubhouse, small kids could bring their bike or scooters for practise.