Lesnes Abbey — Attraction in London

The Abbey is close to my home and I regularly walk my dogs here, one is very friendly the other is rather nervous so he walks on a nervous lead.

People here are very dog friendly, dog groups often meet up and even if you don't meet with a group chances are people will stop and pet your pooch or have a chat about them.

Dogs roam very freely here, so you can expect dogs to be off the lead, but owners are very alert and once they see your body language or yellow leads they call their dog back. They are also very patient with my nervous dog who tends to bark at other dogs when they get too close.

The ruins themselves can be interesting for visitors, but it's the woodland that surrounds the ruins that is most lovely, it's rich and healthy and very old and the council has done well to maintain it.

In the center of the ruins is a small cafe and a small events hall, schools and religious groups often visit. Surrounding this central building are various picnic benches which tend to get filled up quite quickly in the summer by locals. There is also a smaller fenced off green beside the cafe, which is dog free for those that wish to get away from the many canine companions.

Overall I think its a lovely area for the locals, but its quite out of the way of anything else particularly interesting, so I wouldn't really suggest coming miles out of your way to see it, unless you're very interested in the ruins themselves or a ramble...

This is a great park and woodland. There's a kiosk selling hot drinks, ice creams, paninis and cakes for a reasonable price with public toilets attached. This is next to the ruins of the abbey and the Monk's Garden. The Monk's Garden has been nicely planted with plants that used to be grown for their medicinal properties and fenced off and dogs aren't allowed. There are a few wood carvings around in the woods to find. The woods themselves are lovely to explore with well maintained paths and some areas where wild daffodils and wild daffodils flower are fenced off to allow everyone to enjoy without them being trampled. Part of the woods is an SSSI with a small fossil pit. There is a large swing park which includes a parkour practice and small bicycle trail as well as all the slides, swings and climbing equipment. At the weekend and school holidays there's usually an ice cream van parked close by to the swing park. There's a wildlife pond close to Abbey Road where you can try pond dipping. The signage around the park and woods is good with information boards dotted about. All in all this is great place to visit for a walk, find out some local history, spend time with the family etc. A great space to have on...

I have driven past this place many times as a driving instructor but didn't realise what was in the park.

There is an old ruin of the Lesnes abbey and also the monks gardens with different flowers that held different meanings for them from healing to helping with an exorcism (who knew, lol)

There is a lovely café that doesn't charge the earth and although we only had cup of tea I must say the choice of food was plentiful and from what we saw it looked very nice too (something to remember next time).

We walked through the woods and saw an old chalkpit (wasn't allowed in) a couple of ponds and a then we sat on a blanket and watched the world go by.

Would definitely recommend visit to the this park and the area around the station (abbey wood) has some local shops, cafe, pub,...