Camping in London!

Scouts are well know for their eagerness to camp in odd places, so as I sit on the train returning home from a weekend in London, let me give you four interesting places where Scouts can stay, and indeed, camp in London.

Firstly are the two most obvious ones, Baden Powell House and Gilwell Park. BP House is run as a youth hostel and is convenient for central London. Gilwell, is of course, the ‘home’ of Scouting and is an excellent place to camp.

The other two are, perhaps, a little less obvious.

HMS Belfast is a World War 2 Cruiser which is moored on the Thames near to Tower Bridge and is open to the public as a museum ship. As part of their educational department, school groups and youth organisations can spend a night aboard the ship. Unfortunately, you can’t sleep in a hammock, but instead in a 1950’s mess deck. I took our Scouts there some years ago and it certainly is a talking point for the Scouts (and the Leaders of course) to say they spent the night on a WW2 ship in the middle of London.

The last place to stay is probably the least known. In the Bounds Green area of North London is Scout Park camp site. And yes, it is a camp site! If you are not from the area, you wouldn’t know it was there! I only found out about it because I have relatives who live close by. Staying there is an odd experience as you know you’re in the middle of suburban London, but the site itself gives the impression of being on a site in the country. In fact, the only give away is the low flying aircraft on their way to or from Heathrow or the sound of the traffic in the rush hour! It’s a really great place to stay and it is really close to Bounds Green Tube Station, so you can have easy access to the centre of London.

So if you’re thinking of going to London check out these places to stay.