An oval playground seen from high above, its soft surface in green and turquoise, with a big tangle of crossed wooden poles in the middle, wooden blocks and logs scattered round it and a few children and adults, inside a low fence, surrounded by young trees, lawns and a wide curving path where families are walking, with flower beds at the bottom left and a dark sculpture on a plinth at the bottom right

Jubilee Gardens’ fenced playground, seen from the London Eye.

Before you go

Prices
Free
Open
Gardens: always open
Playground: daily from 8.30am except 25 December; closing time changes by month, from 4pm in December and January to 9pm from June to August
Nearest station
Waterloo (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, and train), 6 minutes’ walk, step-free only to the Jubilee line and the train platforms; Westminster (Circle, District and Jubilee lines), 11 minutes’ walk across Westminster Bridge, step-free
Plan your journey
TfL Journey Planner, Google Maps or Uber

For families

  • Closures: the playground can shut at short notice for maintenance, or when rain or ice makes it slippery under the trees. Planned closures go on Instagram.
  • Toilets and baby changing: the Jubiloo, at the gardens’ north-west corner, charges a fee and opens at 10am, and has baby changing in the accessible toilet. Every Southbank Centre venue has both too.
For neurodivergent visitors
  • Sensory play: there are talking tubes along the playground’s fence.
  • Crowds and noise: it can get very busy, and street performers play live music nearby.
Accessibility
  • Getting in: all entrances are step-free.
  • Accessible play: the playground has equipment suitable for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility.
  • Accessible toilets: there’s one at the Jubiloo.
  • Changing Places toilet: on Level 1 of the Royal Festival Hall, by the Singing Glass Lift, with a height-adjustable bench and a tracking hoist; bring a sling. Go in step-free by the outside lift near the Artists’ Entrance on Belvedere Road, and get the key at the Level 2 Welcome Desk.

A low block of shiny black glass under a wide, flat wooden roof with a gold edge, with TOILETS in white letters and figures of a man and a woman on its sides, and payment gates at its open entrance, on a paved square, with a man bending down in front of it, another standing at one end, trees behind and a tall white office block on the right

The Jubiloo, the pay toilets at the gardens’ north-west corner.

The great thing about this park is its location. It’s right next to the London Eye and the Southbank Centre. So it’s a very good opportunity for the kids to work off some energy in a playground, really near to sights that you’d be visiting anyway.

The London Eye's giant white wheel and its pods against a pale sky, at the end of a wide paved path through the gardens, with lawns, trees and wooden benches on either side and families walking towards the camera, some pushing buggies

The London Eye from a path through Jubilee Gardens.

A man in a green vest playing a guitar on a stool on a paved path, with his open guitar case, a small amplifier and a suitcase in front of him, people sitting on a long low stone wall behind him and many more sitting on a sunny lawn beyond, by a green sign saying Welcome to Jubilee Gardens

A guitarist plays beside the lawns on a sunny day.

Two rows of bare trees covered in small blue lights on either side of a wet paved walk at night, the lights reflected in the paving, with a few people walking and a large office building lit up at the end

Trees strung with blue lights near Jubilee Gardens at night.

The playground

The playground is fenced, and intended for children from toddlers up to age 11. The main climbing frame is the Timberwood Tangle, a large wooden structure with a web of routes through it, so each child can pick their own level of challenge. Wooden sheep are dotted about the playground.

Younger children have the Play Ship, added in 2022, with climbing, a double slide and a bridge where they can play at being the ship’s captain. The ship suits little ones and the tangle suits confident climbers, so the playground works for a family with children of different ages.

The playground is one of London’s busiest, so expect to share it. Trees all round keep it shady and cool in summer, and parents can sit on the stone edging round the sides. In December and January it shuts at 4pm.

Before or after the London Eye

A London Eye ticket gives the time to join the queue, and you can’t join it any earlier, so arrive in good time and spend the spare time in the playground. At busy times the queue to board can take an hour or more, so time playing afterwards makes a good reward for patient children.

Getting there

It’s within walking distance of London Waterloo station (train and Tube). Buses 12, 76, 77, 148, 159, 211, 381, 453 and 507 stop close by.