Valentines Park Reviews Summary

Park Facilities

Pros:

• "A beautiful space full of nature and peaceful habitat for many living species."
• "Great for picnics, sunbathing. Loads of park benches."
• "It has tennis/badminton and basketball courts inside the park with kids' playgrounds as well."
• "Boating lake, event field, playground, 2 cricket pitches, multiple tennis courts and outdoor gym equipment."
• "A calm place with a pond with ducks swimming, a lot of greenery."
• "Boating lake, tennis courts, basketball hoops, little cafe, toilets, children's play area."
• "Two lakes with different types of birds."

Cons:

• "The day after we visited there was a murder nearby in Cranbrook Road -I think that event helps to 'set the tone' of what Ilford has unfortunately become over the last 30 years."
• "One official from the park who was there to close the gates behaved very rudely with us."
• "It can get very busy on a sunny afternoon so do come early."
• "Overpriced and very few good rides at the funfair."
• "The toilets were shocking. I was born in the 60s and spent many a happy childhood days there. I'm so sad to see the basketball court looking so derelict."
• "The only thing it needs improvement is toilet, which is very old, very dirty and disgusting."
• "The lake and water features are run down and areas looking tired and some areas being a bit dirty."

Park Maintenance

Pros:

• "Everything is well maintained."
• "It's nice and the community look after it from what I see."
• "The park's well-maintained grounds feature beautiful flower beds, peaceful ponds, and expansive lawns."
• "Kept clean and neat."
• "What a beautiful breathtaking Park with so much room and space to explore."
• "It is a beautiful and well maintained park."
• "The park is very well maintained, the squirrels as friendly as I remember from childhood."

Cons:

• "But I was sad to see all the grass was quite yellow and dried."
• "Valentines park has had its ups and down, more downs of late. It's fallen into a sorry state (not the first time)."
• "Probably need more frequent bin emptying during the hot weather as they are often overflowing."
• "The model boating lake is sadly missed as is the lido, and Cran Brook is not as welcoming as it was when I was a child."
• "The lake on the north side of the park has a foul smell as you walk past, this is likely due to filtration either being poorly maintained or requires significant work or changed completely."
• "The lakes could do with a bit of a clean."
• "The bowling green is overgrown, and weedstrewn."

Accessibility & Safety

Pros:

• "There's also pay and display parking inside the park but there's plenty of free parking on streets around the park."
• "There’s some parking inside but too busy, I would recommend to park on the surrounding streets."
• "Free parking outside which is a bonus."
• "Parking on some side roads is not controlled."
• "Excellent transport links including bus, tube, near to local twin center in Ilford."
• "There's one entrance 5 min walk from Gants Hill Station."
• "A short walk from Gants Hill station on the Central Line."

Cons:

• "A minor inconvenience is that it's not safe to linger too long during nighttime."
• "At no time of the day should lone women or girls...should go into this park."
• "Today I went to Ilford by walk through valentines park on my way back to home 5-6 strangers attacked me and stole my AirPods and kicked me off."
• "It's now become a place for crime, my nephew had his bike stolen here, someone else ran off with his football."
• "Some concerns about some anti-social issues such as 'exotic' smoking in a group of youth to men in their 40s."
• "Great place except when you go towards the bushy areas there may be suspicious characters."
• "There's a lot of litter and some anti social behaviour."

Family & Community Events

Pros:

• "A must visit for anyone around the area."
• "Visitors do celebrate their birthday parties and events here."
• "Wonderful park with many community events taking place throughout the year."
• "Valentines Park is an absolute gem! We've been lucky to live in the area now for several years and enjoy walking this park every morning."
• "Our local park and my entire family visiting this place every week. We like it most."
• "Valentine's Park hosts various community and cultural events throughout the year."
• "We have a fair on sometimes also Eid prayers get prayed here."

Cons:

• "Valentines park used to be my favourite park, but today my tranquility was disturbed by noisy bangra music, due to selfish young men in the car park..."
• "Although there are some places of vandalism and drug selling."
• "you guys should never come here never ever ever ever ever ever ever. It was the biggest waste of my time!!"
• "Now is it awful and not enough bins around for people and none in the car park you to put their rubbish in no wonder people through it on the floor!"
• "Went for Eid namaz was really nice. Definitely coming again specially for eid namaz"
• "It needs some upgrades to restore it to its former glory. Needs maintenance in a few areas."
• "In the past I find the park was quite dirty sometimes with rubbish on ground, bin overfilled and rats running."