Battersea Park Children’s zoo – Review

On Wednesday, myself and two friends decided to pay a visit to Battersea Park Children’s Zoo. Only one of us had been before but never with her own child so it was a new experience for us all. At a very reasonable entry price of  £8.95 per adult and £6.95 per child aged 2+, it was worth having a go. We couldn’t have picked a more perfect autumn day for it. Not too hot, not too cold with gorgeous blue skies and warm sunshine. The leaves on the trees in Battersea park were slowly turning red and gold and the conkers had started to fall. Finding the zoo entrance wasn’t easy when travelling from the south end of the park, but the lovely scenery more than made up for it. The zoo isn’t very well sign posted when you come from that end but for reference if you are planning to visit, the entrance is close to the large pagoda. 

Upon arriving it is clear that this zoo does not have the grandure, nor the funding that ZSL London Zoo has. It is very quaint, with one member of staff manning the gift shop which doubles as the ticket hall. We purchased our tickets and were handed a small map each. I didn’t actually need to look at mine as the place seemed to flow in such a way where you move around in a circle and manage to see everything. We came across some donkies and a mini pony and tried to encourage the little ones to show an interest, but as they ranged from 10-16 months, this proved futile really. It was lunch time, so we headed in the direction of the on site cafe. Again this appeared to only have one member of staff but as there only seemed to be one other foamy there this wasn’t a problem.  The food selection wasn’t huge, but they had a reasonable selection of sandwiches, paninis, pastas and children’s lunch snacks as well as the usual crisps, chocolates and drinks.  The lady kindly made a fresh sandwich for Penny with no butter too which I was thrilled about. We sat outside in the sunshine but I inadvertently sat under a tree, which meant I was clearly a sitting target for pigeon poop. Apparently it’s lucky. 😖

After lunch (surrounded by pigeons) and fighting miss Penny to get her to stay sat down in her high chair with the broken clip, we had another wander around. There was great wheelchair and pram access through the zoo and even small ride along tractors for the small ones to use.  

  

   

   
Below are some of the animals we saw. This includes a photo of either Ant or Dec (I’m not sure which) the emu. Their keeper took some time to talk about these huge birds with us and answered all of our questions. She also said that she had been told that when the emu stare it you, it means that they want to peck you. Eeeek!!!!

   
    
 

We also saw otters, monkeys, lemurs, various birds and smaller animals such as guinea pigs, hedgehogs (although these were hiding) and chinchillas.  Like I said before, I think that the adults were most interested in the animals whereas the babies were a bit too young to understand. They understood the various children’s play areas very well however. There were many, all situated close to each other as well as another small tea bar which sold ice creams too. There really was something for all small children. We avoided the sand pit area, but there was so much else to do. A giant castle structure, pleanty of swings, a tractor, a treehouse and even a fire engine too, equipped with helmets. We spent a lot of time wandering from playground to playground with little thought to our parked up pushchairs safety due to it being so quite. There were maximum 5 other small groups there and all with children under 5. 
   
 All in all it was a great day and much fun was had by all. A very reasonable price for a day out in London and somewhere I will certainly be visiting again!