Brooklands Park and Lake

Updated June 11, 2025

## Brooklands Park and Lake, Worthing: A Practical Guide to Worthing’s Revitalised Green Space

Brooklands Park and Lake is one of Worthing’s key open spaces, sitting just north of the A259 Brighton Road at the junction with Western Road, facing the beach and roughly 1.7 miles (2.7km) east of Worthing Pier. & Worthing Councils

After a multi-million-pound regeneration, it’s shifted from old-school funfair to a nature-led park with serious play infrastructure, a lakeside café, and proper walking and fitness routes. If you’ve seen older references to a mini railway and go-karts, that’s now history – the park has been re-engineered around biodiversity, accessibility, and low-key, all-day use. Landscapes

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## What Brooklands Park and Lake Is Like Today

Adur & Worthing Council describes Brooklands Park as a restored “destination” open space, with two main phases of work:

– Phase one: extensive restoration of the lake and stream – silt removal, new channels for better water flow, and windmill oxygenators so fish and aquatic plants can actually thrive rather than simply survive. & Worthing Councils
– Phase two: the big public-facing upgrades – café, adventure play area, fitness trail and a series of planted glades across the former golf course. & Worthing Councils

A landscape masterplan led by Turkington Martin transformed what had become a neglected seaside space and redundant golf course into a 22-hectare park built around three pillars: nature, inclusivity and health & wellbeing. Martin

### The overall feel

Expect:

– A central lake with a new accessible path all the way around it, with benches and shelters. & Worthing Councils
– Open grass, glades and planted areas rather than dense fairground clutter. & Worthing Councils
– A large adventure playground with modern equipment set into sand and safety surfacing. & Worthing Councils
– A visitor hub and café with public facilities, including an accessible Changing Places toilet next to the Western Road car park. & Worthing Councils

On TripAdvisor, Brooklands (still listed as Brooklands Pleasure Park) currently sits at around 3.3 out of 5 based on 200+ reviews, with recent comments praising the walks and lakeside setting while sometimes grumbling about food options and value.

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## Things to Do at Brooklands Park and Lake

### 1. Adventure Play Area for Kids (and Kids at Heart)

The playground is one of the park’s main draws if you’re visiting with children.

According to the council, the adventure play area includes about 30 pieces of play equipment, with at least two climbing frames over four metres high. & Worthing Councils Blakedown Landscapes, who delivered the build, note that:

– Traditional kit: swings, slides and climbing ropes
– Extra elements: percussion play, landscape structures, sand play and a living willow tunnel
– Surfaces designed to be safer and easier to move around on than the old uneven ground Landscapes

For families, that means you can comfortably spend a couple of hours just rotating between climbing towers, balancing lines and sand play without needing to move far.

Practical tip: recent user reviews highlight that the play area can get very busy on sunny weekends and school holidays, so an early-morning or late-afternoon visit is usually calmer.

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### 2. Lakeside Walks and Fitness Trail

One of the biggest changes is how easy it now is to walk or wheel around the site.

– A new accessible pathway runs right around the lake, with regular seating and shelters – helpful for visitors with limited mobility or anyone managing fatigue. & Worthing Councils
– A 1.55-mile (2.5km) fitness trail loops through the park, with direction markers and outdoor fitness equipment installed along the way. & Worthing Councils

If you’re a runner or walker staying in Worthing, Brooklands works well as a short interval loop: you can run the fitness circuit, drop into the equipment for strength work, then cool down along the lakeside boardwalk and glades.

Nearby walking routes use Brooklands as a starting point – local wildflower trail maps, for example, begin at Brooklands car park and lead north via Brooklands Stream into residential green pockets and recreation grounds. Wildflower Trail

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### 3. Nature Glades, Community Garden and Biodiversity

The post-golf-course landscape has been broken up into a series of glades, each with a specific focus and planting style. Blakedown and Turkington Martin describe these as outdoor “rooms” connected by a sinuous path system, including: Landscapes

– Nature Glade – designed to support biodiversity, with bug hotels and bird boxes.
– Play and Build Glade – demonstrates how trees and plants can be used in construction and play structures.
– Winter Glade – highlights evergreen species and planting that still looks alive in the colder months.
– Community Garden – with raised planters for food growing; materials for these planters were donated and constructed with the Friends of Brooklands Park. Landscapes

Across the park, more than 120 trees and thousands of shrubs, perennials, grasses and hedging plants have been added, with a focus on predominantly native species and a “sensory ribbon” of plants chosen for texture and scent. Landscapes

This biodiversity-first approach is a big shift from the older fairground era, and recent local projects continue to use Brooklands as a case study in boosting wildlife habitats along Worthing’s urban coastal strip. to Waves

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### 4. Café, Picnics and Low-Key Lakeside Time

The new lakeside café and visitor hub includes:

– Internal and external seating
– A green roof and sustainably sourced materials
– Public toilets as part of the same cluster of facilities Landscapes

TripAdvisor reviews often recommend bringing your own picnic and using the benches if you’re budget-conscious, treating the café more as a backup for hot drinks or ice cream rather than a full meal stop.

Because there’s plenty of open grass around the lake, it’s straightforward to find a quiet corner for:

– A picnic blanket and a book
– Watching water birds around the lake – recent restoration work and new oxygenators have increased the amount of waterfowl using the site. & Worthing Councils

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## Accessibility and Inclusive Facilities

Brooklands is one of the more thought-through accessible parks on this stretch of the South Coast.

### Parking and step-free access

From CYCALL’s accessibility information:

– Two large pay-and-display car parks serve the park from Brighton Road and Western Road.
– These include designated disabled parking bays, free for Blue Badge holders when parked correctly in marked disabled spaces.
– Western Road car park has around 106 spaces, 20 disabled bays and two EV charging spaces, with a height barrier around 1.88m – important if you’re in a high-roof vehicle or camper.

### Toilets and Changing Places facility

Brooklands has:

– A Changing Places-standard toilet near the Western Road car park, accessed via the national RADAR key scheme, with a hoist for people with complex changing needs.
– Additional public toilets, including accessible cubicles, managed by Adur & Worthing Council.

### Inclusive cycling (CYCALL)

Brooklands hosts CYCALL, an inclusive cycling project that provides adapted bikes and trikes for children and adults who might not be able to use standard bicycles. & Worthing Councils

Key points:

– CYCALL offers a fleet of adapted cycles (bookable via their website) and is a Dementia-Friendly organisation – all volunteers have completed dementia awareness training.
– As of their latest update, CYCALL is closed for winter and due to reopen in spring 2026, so check the CYCALL site or social channels for current operating dates before planning a session around it.

For visitors with mobility, sensory or cognitive needs, the combination of smooth paths, clear wayfinding, adapted cycling and Changing Places facilities makes Brooklands one of the more inclusive green spaces in the Worthing area.

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## Practical Information for Visiting Brooklands Park and Lake

### Location

– Address (Council): Brooklands Park, Western Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN15 8SA. & Worthing Councils
– Approximate co-ordinates: 50.8204, –0.3384 (east of central Worthing, close to Lancing).
– Sits directly north of Brighton Road (A259), opposite the shingle beach.

### Opening hours

Brooklands is a public park rather than a gated theme park. Aggregator sites list typical opening hours around 07:00–21:00, but these can change seasonally or for maintenance, and official council pages emphasise the facilities rather than specific daily times.

Safe assumption: treat it as a daylight-hours park and check Adur & Worthing Council’s Brooklands page before an early-morning or late-evening visit for any restrictions or event closures. & Worthing Councils

### Parking and charges

– Brighton Road car parks (East and West): smaller seafront car parks used for both Brooklands and the beach, each with disabled bays and height barriers.
– Brooklands Western Road car park (BN15 8RX): main inland car park with over 100 spaces, disabled bays and EV charging.

These are pay-and-display car parks, typically charging during daytime hours including weekends and public holidays. Because tariffs are periodically updated, always check either:

– The council’s Worthing car parks page, or
– The on-site pay machines and signage on arrival. & Worthing Councils

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## What’s Changed: Old Brooklands vs. the New Nature-Led Park

If you’re comparing notes with someone who visited Brooklands years ago, you’re probably talking about two very different places.

Historically, Brooklands was known as Brooklands Pleasure Park, with:

– A miniature railway (opened in the 1960s) that ran along the lake,
– A small funfair, go-karts, and more traditional seaside attractions.

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