Best Places to Visit in Crawley
Planning on moving to Crawley? Here are 5 of the most notable places to visit in this large town.
County Mall Shopping Centre
If you are fond of shopping and blockbuster entertainment, then visit Crawley’s town centre. Along the streets of the lively town centre are a lot of independent shops and restaurants. If you want to do some retail therapy, you can find everything at the County Mall Shopping Centre.
The County Mall Shopping Centre is a major shopping centre in Crawley that offers a great variety of shops. You can find the shopping mall on Southgate Ave. The mall is open from 9 am to 7 pm except on Sundays. It features over 90 stores that offer many things like clothes, shoes, accessories, coffee shops and world-famous chocolatiers.
You can bring everyone in your family to this mall. Regardless of age, you can find something to do here. The mall features some of the finest restaurants in the town centre. It also has a food court and a soft-play area for the kids. Make sure to check the County Mall website to check the latest offers and events.
Don’t worry about parking. There are plenty of car parks in Crawley. The shopping mall itself also has over 1,700 parking spaces to accommodate its customers. There are designated bays for both parents parking and disabled parking in both the North and South parks of the mall. The car park opens at 7:30 am from Monday to Saturday and at 9 am on Sundays. The daily parking fee starts at £2.50 for the first two hours that increases up to £5.00 if you exceed four hours.
Crawley Museum
On the other side of the town centre, you can find the town’s local history museum: Crawley Museum. If you want to know the town’s history and culture, visiting Crawley Museum is the right call. The museum reflects the history of the town through its objects and stories. It also shows the diversity of Crawley by showing a temporary exhibition space with displays that change regularly.
Despite being a small museum, the Crawley Museum contains several history items visitors will enjoy. It tells the history of Crawley by revealing the stories behind the museum’s objects and exhibits. The museum’s collection includes objects from Crawley’s different eras and events. These pieces and artefacts date all the way back from the town’s prehistory and iron age beginnings up to the 20th Century New Town development.
If you are looking for something else other than the town’s history, don’t worry! Crawley Museum never fails to entertain people with its active programme of events. The museum makes the space appealing to all by adding education and entertaining aspects to its exhibits. Today, it celebrates Crawley’s communities through their oral history collections. Included in this are the museum’s temporary exhibitions and community engagement projects.
If you are looking for a short yet fruitful stop in the Crawley town centre, you should definitely consider the Crawley Museum. The museum is in The Tree, which is one of the town’s oldest buildings. You can find it on the corner of the historic High Street and The Boulevard. The museum is usually open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10:30 am to 4 pm. On Sundays, the museum is open from 2 pm to 4:30 pm.
If you want to know more about Crawley’s history and culture, visit the Ifield Watermill. The Ifield Watermill is one of the two museums of Crawley Museum. People see the Ifield Watermill as the only working watermill in West Sussex powered by its original source. If you are planning a visit, note that the Ifield Watermill is not open for the winter. Visit Crawley Museum’s webpage to know more about the mill’s opening days.
Tilgate Park
Crawley’s most famous spots are its parks and green spaces. The largest and most popular park in the town is Tilgate Park. The park is in the Tilgate neighbourhood, all the way South of Crawley. The park’s stunning lakes, lawns, gardens, and other attractions earned it the Green flag status.
Tilgate Park is very popular for visitors because of the wide variety of activities it offers. Within the park, you can find great cafes like the Lakeside Cafe and restaurants such as the Smith and Western restaurant. In the heart of Tilgate Park, you can find The Walled Garden. It is home to wonderful garden types like a family garden, wildlife garden, and many more.
Tilgate Nature Centre
Right beside The Walled Garden, you can find the entrance to the Tilgate Nature Centre. The Tilgate Nature Centre is home to over 100 different species including otters, owls, reindeers, and raccoon dogs. You can enhance your visit by attending holiday activities, listening to public talks, or booking a special experience. You can also have a Meet the Meerkats experience, birthday parties, or even adopt an animal. To book and know more about these activities, visit the Tilgate Nature Centre’s webpage.
Go Ape
Inside the Tilgate Park, you can see obstacle courses set up by Go Ape. Go Ape provides you with a good opportunity to bond with your kids and your family. From rope ladders, wobbly crossings, and zip lines, there is no stopping you to have fun and be adventurous. Among the adventure sports you can do here are the treetop challenge, treetop adventure, forest segway, and sundown adventure. Visit Go Ape’s website to know more about the details!
Tilgate Park Watersports
Aside from trees and gardens, Tilgate Park also has a lake where you can do various water sports activities. Tilgate Park Watersports offer different activities including canoeing, kayaking, and raft building. You can book activities as a group or you can join the weekend club days every Saturday. You can also join the holiday activities which happen in the Easter and in summer holidays.
Tilgate Park Fisheries
Want to take it easy and chill? You can go fishing at Tilgate Park Fisheries. It consists of a small club of fishermen and women who have been fishing at the Tilgate Park for years. Everyone is welcome to join from beginner fishers to veterans.
Tilgate Forest Golf Centre
Another popular gem of Crawley is the Tilgate Forest Golf Centre. It incorporates the trees and other natural features into its design, making the golf courses challenging yet fun. It has an 18 hole course and a nine hole par three course that is ideal for beginners. Visit this site to learn more about the full details of the gold centre.
Buchan Country Park
Another popular park that won the Green Flag Award is the Buchan Country Park. The Buchan Country Park covers 170 acres of woodland, heath, and meadow. You can find it on Horsham Road near the Broadfield Neighbourhood. It is approximately 2 miles away from the Crawley town centre.
Buchan Country Park is popular for groups and families who want to enjoy a picnic. The park has a designated picnic area that includes everything you need like free parking, toilets, and BBQ stands. Aside from picnic, families can also have fun by hunting the different sculptures dotted around the park.
The country park is also ideal for walking around and watching the wildlife. Among the many animals you can see here are dragonflies, nightjars, and great crested grebe. Unlike in Tilgate Park, the Buchan Country Park allows dogs. The park is popular for dog walkers as it also has dog dips and dog bins for their dog’s needs.
The country park has facilities like the Countryside Centre and CoffeEco Mobile Barista. You can also chill in the Phil Haskell Wild Garden which is near Bewbush and the Douster Pond. Note that the garden is a dog-free area. Much of the park also allows good access for pushchairs and wheelchairs.
The Hawth
Tired of outdoor activities? Try mixing things up by visiting a theatre! Crawley shows great value in art through its public art and theatre art. One of the best places to experience the town’s theatre arts and performances is The Hawth Theatre. You can find The Hawth in Hawth Avenue, 0.5 miles away from the town centre.
The Hawth is famous for offering one of the liveliest displays of art in the South East. It offers a very diverse programme of arts and performances. It includes performances from various artists, musicians, and performers from around the world. It shows different kinds of shows from theatre and music to comedy and film.
Various shows are possible in The Hawth due to its wide range of performance spaces. The place’s facilities include the main theatre, which can accommodate 855 people, and the studio, which can accommodate 146. It also has a marquee, an exhibition space, a cinema, and an amphitheatre that can host a variety of performances and shows.
The Hawth is a well-established theatre in the South East of England. It hosts 350 performances and events every year. Over 150,000 paying customers visit The Hawth due to the quality and range of the theatre’s events.
To book tickets, you can contact the box office by phone or online. The box office is open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 8:15 pm. On Sundays, the box office is open one hour before the performance that day.
Different Neighbourhoods in Crawley
Visiting the local attractions in this large town can be quite exhausting. It is important to find a good place where you can settle down. You have plenty of places to choose from in Crawley as this large town has 14 neighbourhoods. Choosing one can be tricky since each neighbourhood has its own different character.
Here, we listed some of the neighbourhoods in Crawley including their details. If you need additional space for your home or temporary storage don’t worry as we also included the directions to the nearest Henfield Storage in Crawley.
West Green
If you want to be in a neighbourhood close to the town centre, then West Green is a good choice. You can find West Green to the west of Crawley town centre. The neighbourhood was built as part of the New Town in the 1950s after the Second World War.
West Green has a lot of attractions in its own right. It is a great neighbourhood for your family to live in as it has the facilities you need from a hospital to a leisure park.
Crawley Hospital
What makes West Green one of the ideal neighbourhoods in Crawley is its direct access to the Crawley Hospital. You can find the Crawley Hospital along West Green Drive near the town centre. The hospital is a National Health Service hospital and has been part of the Sussex Community NHS Trust since 2006.
West Green Park
One of the most notable areas in the West Green neighbourhood is the West Green Park. The West Green Park is an open green space near the town centre along Ifield Avenue. The park is perfect for recreational activities. It offers a play area, tennis courts, cricket pitch, Petanque pitch and bowls greens. The atmosphere of the park is also calm and relaxing, thanks to its peaceful Anniversary Garden.
Crawley Leisure Park
A few steps away from West Green Park is the Crawley Leisure Park. As its name implies, the leisure park is one of the best places for leisure not just in West Green but also in the whole of Crawley. The park offers a multi-screen cinema (Cineworld), a health club, and a bowling alley.
It is currently Crawley’s only permanent cinema. The prices for the cinema starts at £7.90 for adults, with discounts for children, students, and senior citizens.
The health club is the Nuffield Health Crawley West Fitness and Wellbeing Gym, which was formerly known as the Crawley Health Club. The gym offers several facilities including a swimming pool, a children’s pool, a sauna, and a jacuzzi. They also offer different services like swimming lessons, personal training, yoga, and Zumba. If you want to go bowling, you can go to the Hollywood Bowl which offers 26 lanes.
If you need a place to store your items, you don’t have to worry as the nearest Henfield storage facility is only 5 minutes away! From West Green, just head west on Ifield Ave toward Ewhurst Rd until you reach the Ifield Roundabout. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Crawley Ave/A23.
Keep going straight until you reach the Tushmore Gyratory. Take the 2nd exit onto London Road/A23. Keep going forward until you see the large car park of various stores like the Paperchase Stationery Store and the TK Maxx Department Store. Turn left onto County Oak Way and drive straight until you reach the roundabout.
Take the 2nd exit at the roundabout and stay on County Oak Way. When you see the Acorn Retail Park on the right side of the road, turn left. The next right turn should take you to the nearest Henfield Storage facility in Crawley.
Southgate
Another neighbourhood within walking distance of the Crawley town centre is Southgate. You can reach this neighbourhood by going south from the town centre. Most of the area was built in two stages between the 1950s and the 1970s. It provides a peaceful atmosphere with its green spaces and old beautiful buildings.
Southgate is a great choice if you want to live in a peaceful neighbourhood near the town centre. The area has the basic things you would need. This includes a community centre, primary and secondary schools, and independent shops. It is also close to a park and playing fields perfect for recreational activities.
Goffs Park
Goffs Park is the oldest park in Crawley. Its relaxing environment and facilities earned it its Green Flag status. The park is set over 20 hectares of woodland and green spaces. The park features a boating pond and lake and a pitch and putt. It also has the Goffs Park Light Railway which provides public passenger rides every Sunday from 2 pm to 5 pm.
You can visit the Goffs Park House which is a museum in the park that offers free admission. The museum displays permanent and temporary exhibits on a wide variety of subjects. Other features of the park are the Goffs Manor, woodland walks, free parking etc.
Schools and Shops
Residents like to live here because of the easy access to many schools and shops in Southgate. On Downland Drive, you can find the Tesco Supermarket. Southgate also has the pharmacies Crombie and Sadler and Williams Chemist. If you have kids, Southgate offers several schools that are within walking distance. Some of the popular schools in the area are the Southgate Primary School and St Wilfrid’s Catholic School.
Are you moving from Horsham to Crawley? Less than an hour away from London, Brighton residents choose to store their items in Crawley. Brighton self storage can be tough to find. Meanwhile, Henfield Storage provides all the features you can ever want in a storage facility. The Henfield storage facility in Crawley is easily accessible from Southgate. You can reach the self-storage facility in more or less 5 minutes! From Horsham Rd/A2220, head southwest going to the Cheals Roundabout. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Crawley Ave/A23. Keep driving straight until you reach the Ifield Roundabout past the Ewhurst Playing Field.
Take the 2nd exit and stay on Crawley Avenue until you reach the Tushmore Gyratory. Take the 2nd exit onto London Road/A23. Keep going forward until you see the large car park of various stores like the Paperchase Stationery Store and the TK Maxx Department Store. Turn left onto County Oak Way and drive straight until you reach the roundabout.Take the 2nd exit at the roundabout and stay on County Oak Way. When you see the Acorn Retail Park on the right side of the road, turn left. The next right turn should take you to the nearest Henfield Storage facility in Crawley.
Northgate
On the other side of the map, you can find the Northgate neighbourhood. Northgate is directly north of the Crawley town centre. The town centre is easily accessible from Northgate as it is within walking distance. Still, Northgate has several facilities that make the neighbourhood a good place to settle in.
Northgate houses several independent shops that are unique in their own way. Along the parade of shops in Northgate, you can find shops that can be useful such as the Jade’s chemist pharmacy. Along London Rd, you can find The Hairdressers which is a popular ladies’ hair salon in Crawley. Men do not need to search far as a men’s hairdresser, The Barbers, is right next to The Hairdressers.
If you love music, Northgate offers different music shops that sell various musical items from instruments to music sheets. Along The Parade, you can find the TMC Music shop where you can buy or sell musical instruments. Northgate is also close to the industrial zone Manor Royal. Manor Royal is the biggest business park of the Gatwick Diamond area.
Planning to settle in Northgate? Rent a self-storage facility for your storage needs! The Henfield storage facility is only a 5-minute drive from Northgate. If you are coming from the Boundary Rd, turn left onto Barnfield Rd. Turn right when you reach the London Rd, then keep driving straight until you reach the Tushmore Gyratory. Take the 3rd exit onto London Road/A23.
Keep going forward until you see the large car park of various stores like the Paperchase Stationery Store and the TK Maxx Department Store. Turn left onto County Oak Way and drive straight until you reach the roundabout. Take the 2nd exit at the roundabout and stay on County Oak Way. When you see the Acorn Retail Park on the right side of the road, turn left. The next right turn should take you to the nearest Henfield Storage facility in Crawley.
Bewbush
If you prefer settling somewhere a bit far from the town centre, Bewbush is a great choice. Bewbush is the perfect neighbourhood for you to enjoy the countryside. The neighbourhood offers stunning sceneries that provide a relaxing atmosphere. Bewbush also has the relevant facilities you need from a medical centre to a gym & sports hall.
If you want to get active, you can go to the Dorsten Square where you can find The Bewbush Centre. The Bewbush Centre offers a range of facilities including a gym, a sports hall, and a cafe. The sports hall hosts many different activities such as basketball, volleyball, and netball. Everyone Active manages The Bewbush Centre.
Bewbush offers facilities relevant for your family such as a medical centre and a school. On Bewbush Place near the intersection of Bewbush Dr and Goodwin Cl, you can find the Bewbush Medical Centre. The medical centre is open on weekdays from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. Along Dorsten Place near The Bewbush Centre, you can find The Bewbush Academy.
Bewbush’s proximity to Henfield storage facilities makes the area a great place to settle in. From The Bewbush Centre, keep driving straight on Bewbush Dr. You should go through 2 roundabouts. Once you reach the Broadfield Roundabout, take the 1st exit onto Horsham Road/A220. Keep moving forward until you reach the Cheals Roundabout near the Squire’s Garden Centre. Take the 1st exit onto Crawley Ave/A23.
Once you reach the Ifield Roundabout past the Ewhurst Playing Field, take the 2nd exit. Stay on Crawley Ave. At Tushmore Gyratory, take the 2nd exit onto London Rd. Keep going forward until you see the large car park. Turn left onto County Oak Way and drive straight until you reach the roundabout. Take the 2nd exit at the roundabout and stay on County Oak Way. When you see the Acorn Retail Park on the right side of the road, turn left. The next right turn should take you to the nearest Henfield Storage facility in Crawley.
Kemptown
Three Bridges
If you want to settle in a neighbourhood with great transport links, you should consider Three Bridges. Three Bridges used to be a small village. Upon merging with other villages, the village became a lively new town in Crawley. Transportation is excellent here because of the Three Bridges railway station. The rail station is a mainline station that makes London and Brighton accessible from Crawley.
Stores and supermarkets are available everywhere in Three Bridges. Along Hazelwick Ave beside the Ocean House, you can find the discount supermarket Lidl. Going straight through Hazelwick Ave on Bycroft Way, you can find the Tesco Extra. Tesco Extra is a popular supermarket close to other shops such as the Tesco Direct Click and Collect. On the other end of Hazelwick Ave, you can find Iceland Foods which offer frozen packaged foods.
You can also join in various sports clubs in Three Bridges. On Jubilee Walk you can find the Jubilee Club and the Three Bridges Football Club. Visit Three Bridges Football Club’s website to join. If you are a fan of tennis, you can join the Crawley Lawn Tennis Club. The tennis club has different programs for people of all ages and abilities.
Three Bridges is only an 8-minute drive from the nearest Henfield storage facility. Coming from the Three Bridges Rd, turn left onto Haslett Ave E/A2220. Turn left onto Hazelwick Ave. Keep driving straight until you reach the Hazelwick Roundabout. Take the 1st exit and stay on Hazelwick Ave. After you drive past the Pond Wood Road Playground, you will see a road that splits three ways. Choose the left path.
Driving straight should take you to the Hazelwick Roundabout. Take the 2nd exit onto Crawley Ave/A2011. Keep moving forward until you reach the Tushmore Gyratory. Take the 4th exit onto London Rd. Keep going forward until you see the large car park. Turn left onto County Oak Way and drive straight until you reach the roundabout. Take the 2nd exit at the roundabout and stay on County Oak Way. When you see the Acorn Retail Park on the right side of the road, turn left. The next right turn should take you to the nearest Henfield Storage facility in Crawley.