Kings Park is one of Bournemouth's biggest green spaces, around 86 acres of playing fields, sports facilities and open ground on the eastern side of town, in Boscombe. It's less a single park than a small sporting district: Vitality Stadium, home of AFC Bournemouth, and the athletics track used by Bournemouth Athletic Club both sit within its boundaries, alongside quieter corners for a walk or a picnic.
A royal name from 1902
The park takes its name from a council decision of May 1902, when Bournemouth renamed one of the town's commons "King's Park" to mark the coronation of King Edward VII; a neighbouring common became Queen's Park at the same time. Today Kings Park is looked after, together with Queens, Meyrick and Redhill parks and Seafield Gardens, under the same long-standing local charitable trust, a reminder of how much of Bournemouth's green space was set aside for public use over a century ago.
Sport, play and a wilder corner
Beyond the football ground and running track, the park has an outdoor and an indoor bowling green, a cricket field with its own pavilion and café, a skate park, and two children's play areas. It's also the start point for the free, weekly Bournemouth parkrun. Away from the pitches, the Kings Park Conservation Area is a rougher patch of meadow and heathland with a small wooded section, left unpaved and largely undeveloped as a haven for common lizards, slowworms and other wildlife.
Entry is free and the park is open year-round, with free parking nearby. For refreshments, Kings Park Cafe sits right by the athletics track, and there's more to explore in our guide to things to do in Bournemouth.
