South Marine Park
Nature Reserves, Country Parks & Beaches · South Shields, Tyne & Wear
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🌳 Outdoor🆓 Free entryGardens🛝 PlaygroundWater playAdventure play
What’s there
- Café on site
- Paid parking
- Buggy friendly
- Picnic area
- Dogs welcome
Access & inclusion
- Step-free access
Seafront car parks along Sea Road. Approx £1.20/hour (8am-8pm), all-day around £6. Free outside those hours.
Only facilities we’ve confirmed are listed — anything missing here we simply haven’t checked, rather than know to be absent.
South Marine Park is the green heart of the South Shields seafront. With its boating lake, miniature steam railway, play areas, Victorian bandstand, and landscaped gardens, it has been a place for walking, playing, relaxing, and socialising for over a hundred years.
The Boating Lake is one of the park's most popular attractions, where you can hire pedalos and rowing boats for a leisurely circuit of the lake, getting close to the resident swans, ducks, and geese. Open seasonally from Easter to September.
The Lakeshore Railroad is a miniature steam railway that runs around the boating lake — the only public, steam-working 9.5-inch gauge railway in the UK, running since 1972.
The park has two play areas suitable for different age groups, with adventure climbing frames, slides, swings, and a water play feature. The Victorian bandstand hosts live music throughout the summer months. Free entry.
Boating lake and Lakeshore Railroad miniature steam railway operate seasonally, typically Easter to end of September, weather permitting.
Stuff to take with you
The things people wish they’d packed for a day out like this one.
- Wellies
- Refillable water bottleMost places will fill it for free.
- Snacks that survive a rucksackCheaper than the café, and buys you twenty minutes.
- Wet wipes
- Travel sickness bands
- Folding stool
- Portable phone charger
- A penForms, competitions, name badges.
- Painkillers for grown-ups
- Torch
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