St Andrews Park

A beautiful open space tucked away in St Andrews: Flowers, trees and picnic areas… if you’re lucky they’ll even be some peeps having a little jam

St Andrews park is great, it’s a luscious green haven just a short walk from the hustle and bustle of Gloucester road. The park has lots of green grassy space, and trees to offer shade from the sun.
The kids play area is at the top of the hill and hosts your usual park utensils, it also has a paddling pool which is open during the summer.
This park offers something for everyone, it has a really chilled feel and during the warm weather has a real festival vibe. With groups of people having BBQs and enjoying a few beers in the sun. There’s a small catering can that offers drinks and nibbly treats!
The toilets are the only downside to this place, they are a little worse for wear and could do with a bit of TLC.
I love this park and would definitely recommend you pay a visit!

We took our first trip to St Andrews park over the bank holiday weekend, the weather was beautiful which definitely made the experience much better.
The green itself was lovely but we spent our afternoon in the children’s park. As far as children’s parks go this is probably one of the best we have been to. They have a big sandpit & a huge climbing frame, both are great for younger and older children.
The only downfall is the fact that the park is situated on a relatively steep hill which meant we couldn’t really leave our son (who is 18 months) to run around on his own.
All in all it’s a lovely, free day out for the family on a nice warm day.

I live about 2 mins away from St Andrews park and it is a great place to head too if you just want to chill out. I moved to Bristol about 6 months ago and parks like this don’t exist up north. They’re usually filled with scally scumbags drinking white lighting harassing little old ladies. Now its respectable folk, drinking thatchers gold, playing frisbee. It feels comfortable.
It does get insanely busy though. On a hot day this small park will be visited by hundreds of people all hoping to catch some rays with disposable bbq on the go. However this place is my favourite in the evening.
When everything calms down and the park is almost empty I sit there with a book or walk my new pup around I get the real feeling of peace and quiet. Love it.

I recently moved to one of the roads adjacent to St Andrews Park but it has taken me a whole month to visit the place. This isn’t due to the lack of good weather cos boy has it been hot in recent days but the fact that I have been tied to the kitchen table doing work (mostly writing reviews for this website in fact). But last Sunday myself and my husband took a wander through the park. It was a sea of bare flesh, but not minging bare flesh, lovely young, slim bare flesh — which to be honest, just made me feel bad for retaining my winter jacket (that’s fat to you and me) throughout the spring. Damn. There was also no shortage of kids running about with water balloons and soft balls, the odd couple sat under a tree with their new born baby and loved up young folk reading to each other. It kind of had a Primrose Hill vibe. It’s not as big as The Downs or Redland Green but it is small and perfectly formed.

I started making good use of this park last summer! As soon as university exams were finished a good group of us heading down to St Andrew’s to chill out and have some drinks in the sun. It is a beautiful park that has been kept in great condition, fairly sizeable, and set on a bit of a slope. This park is popular with a vast variety of people — from families to students to adults — and there’s also a well looked after children’s playground, which is brilliant if you have kids.
In the summer this park is buzzing and gets very very busy, especially on sunny days and at the weekends — there’s also a little ice cream van that is always parked at the top which is an added bonus to a hot day! I am definitely a fan — and located just a short walk from Cheltenham road (think the road behind Somerfield), it’s literally just round the corner for me and the best place in the area to chill out with a picnic! Would definitely recommend this park to absolutely anyone who enjoys being outside!

Perfect for watching the world go by on a sunny afternoon, St Andrews is the park of choice for students, young mums and kids skipping college for the afternoon.
The sloping hills have just the right balance between grass and trees, making it easy to stay in or out of the sun depending on your tolerance. The mobile café towards the back of the park has lots of outside seating, hot drinks and snacks and looks rather quaint what with all the bunting surrounding it. Beyond that there is a sectioned off playground for small children, though this area is currently undergoing development (meaning plenty of new playground rides).
Dogs are welcome and the relaxed vibe of the park means that come Saturday, weather permitting, there will be barbeques and alcohol everywhere. The sun attracts some of Bristol’s more eccentric characters — a few weeks ago I saw a snake charmer busking here, if busking is the appropriate word for approaching small children with a live python wrapped round your neck!
Acrobatics, Frisbee, football and poi are some of the more common activities here but head to the furthest back hill to the right if you want to sit back and chill out with the cool kids. A cheat’s way of finding this place is to go to the small Somerfields on Gloucester Road and leave through the back entrance. Walk in a straight line and you’ll be at the park entrance in a couple of minutes — if in doubt, follow anyone carrying a crate of beer!

Although it can be difficult to find if you’re not a Montpelier local, St Andrews park is just how an inner city park should be. Filled with people of all shapes and sizes, ages and walks of life, the park has a pleasant and unassuming feel to it.
There are leafy trees, open spaces, graffitied toilets and the cutest little café serving little old granny cakes I have ever seen. Despite the hangover victims and juggling hippies, it nevertheless manages to feel like the most wholesome place in the world.
The residential area also feels a lot more peaceful than some of the more central parks, and people definitely come to firmly embed themselves in its grassy stretches for a good few hours. Without a doubt one of Bristol’s best spots for a picnic.

Love love love this park. A picnic in its lush grass always heralds the start of the summer and, although it’s so close to Gloucester Road, it never gets unbearably full. The vibe is always pretty chilled and there are mums and dads sipping wine with their mates while their kids run amok sitting happily beside rose-​drinkers and people enjoying a barbecue and some beers. There was also one of the popular Glos Road crazies, complete with a giant effigy of Speedy Gonzales. Amazing.
The gentle slope means nobody has to sit on top of one another and there is also a great kiddie’s playground and good-​sized duck pond.
If only I could afford one of the gorgeous town houses that overlook it and you’d find me here every day!

St Andrews Park is very popular with dog walkers and football players, but it is usually possible to get a peaceful corner to yourself in the summer, without worrying about getting a football in your face or being able to smell dog mess. You may have to move a few times during the day to achieve this!
It is quite pretty though, and has a dog-​free children’s playground and a small paddling pool (unsupervised and open from May bank holiday to the 31^st of September). You can even bowl there when the resident team is playing, although you have to book first.

I love St Andrews Park; I agree with Henry that it’s arguably the best park in Bristol, especially on a sunny day after a big night out. I visited St Andrews on my first day in Bristol and kept coming back. It’s the sort of place you might show a visiting friend; take a picnic, and a football (a guitar or a set of juggling balls if you’re that way inclined) and choose a spot near the top of the park as this is the area with the most sunlight.
As well as lots of shady and sunny areas to sit on the grass, there is a small coffee and cake vendor, a paddling pool for the kids and a play-​park. Everyone hangs out here in the summer, from groups of teenagers, to students and young families.
The park is ideally situated behind Gloucester Rd; you can walk through Somerfield to get to it quickly or take the back streets from the arches.

A square of green, surrounded by terraces on all sides, St. Andrews Park is probably deserving of the ‘green oasis’ cliché. Big old conker trees at the top of the hill make lovely shade for reading. As you go further down, there’s a bit more open space usually where people play football. As the land isn’t flat here it’s not perfect for sports, although I have enjoyed a few afternoons of Frisbee here.
There’s a kids park, which doesn’t usually have glowering teenagers sitting on the swings, always a plus. They’ve also got a bowls green (so a lied, there is at least one small patch of perfectly flat land) tucked away for your granddad.
Since its surrounded by housing it’s unsurprising how popular it gets when the sun comes out. On a fine day in July or August it can be a challenge to find enough space to set your picnic and you can certainly forget about being able to play Frisbee. I don’t blame the people for coming, this park offers a little lung for the surrounding area.

This is, in my opinion, the best park in Bristol. Indeed, I live in Totterdown and will occasionally make the effort to drive over here on a Sunday afternoon.
Why? Because it’s so vibrant. Presumably because of the high local student population, there’s always something lively going on. As well as the usual dog walkers and hungover picnicers, you’ll find plenty of skaters, people playing ball games and even teams of drummers. And because the park is relatively small and doesn’t have a hill in the middle, all of this activity is visible from anywhere in the park.
The overall effect isn’t that far off a carnival atmosphere, with the music in the background and plenty of beers flowing. I once joined in a game of cricket and ended up playing for about five hours, by the end of which practically everyone in the park had had a quick bat or bowl. A really friendly atmosphere that’s unrivalled anywhere else in Bristol.