- Location: Holywell King George V Playing Fields, Chaffinch Lane, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD18 9QD
- Terrain: hard path
- Elevation: flat, 31m
- Parking: on site, free
- Facilities: toilets and cafes
- Shoes: road
- Laps: 3.75
- Attendance: Medium 150-200
- Last visited on: 09 May 2026
- Number of visits: 1
Last parkrunday I visited Holywell King George V Playing Fields parkrun for the first time. After a few weeks of extensive travel, both abroad and within the UK, last of which was my visit to Brighton & Hove parkrun last week, I am finally back to new local events. Holywell King George V parkrun is located near Watford, just inside the M25. As such, it is the latest addition to the coveted LonDone+ challenge, bringing the number of events needed to complete it up to 82. After ticking this box, I still miss 2 events to get there, both along the Northern section of the M25. Soon, I am sure.
I picked this week to visit Holywell King George V Playing Fields parkrun because it was their 15th event. There is always a pointless challenge-related reason to visit a new event after all, isn’t there? Event 15 gets my Golden Wilson Index up to the same level, with 2 or 3 further increases expected over the next couple of months. This is a fun fil rouge to follow in my exploration, sometimes bringing me to venues I would probably not have visited otherwise.
On parkrun eve I looked for a few videos to see how the course would be. As a relatively new event, there weren’t many and the first one I opened was for a similarly named one in the midlands. Seemed to be a moderately boring run around rugby pitches, similar to Hazelwood parkrun. I nearly didn’t come and looked for options to procrastinate while planning to get my 15 elsewhere. Then I noticed the mistake, but saw it was nearly 4 laps… I nearly didn’t come. But I am glad I did, the course is much more interesting and fun than I expected it to be.
This part of Hertfordshire is also blessed but a lot of remarkable parkruns. Among the ones I have already visited, honourable mention definitely should go to Cassiobury parkrun, Rickmansworth parkrun or Aldenham parkrun. Spoiled for choice.
Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Holywell King George V Playing Fields parkrun!
Trip to Holywell King George V parkrun and parking
Holywell King George V parkrun takes place in the equally named King George V Playing Fields in the Watford area. This is within the M25, in the Greater London transport area, just West of the central North point. Holywell is a residential area in West Watford, named from an historical farming site by the River Colne.
The event starts by the central hub of the green area, next to the Community Centre and some large, very well maintained children playgrounds and model traffic areas.
According to the official event site, the closest station is Watford Junction. This is served by the Lioness Line of the London Underground and it is on the mainline running between London Euston and St. Albans. Once you get there, you will still be more than 2 miles away from the event meeting point: you could walk it in about 50 minutes according to Google Maps. Or you could hop on a local bus and reach your target location in about 30 minutes.
If you are driving, Holywell King George V parkrun is not far from major motorways routes, with the M25 and the M1 only minutes away. It took me about 1h to get there from Wimbledon, the very opposite side of London. Very different story when it comes to driving back, but that’s the usual plight of travelling around London late morning on a parkrunday.
The postcode above gets you to your destination pretty well. I think it was less than 10 minutes away from the moment when I left the motorway system. As you enter the gates to the Playing Fields, there is a large car park immediately to your right and a smaller one a few seconds further on, closer to the Community Centre. Both are totally fine and minutes away from Holywell King George V parkrun’s meeting point. These car parks are free.
From the car park, you walk by the playing fields and cross a large meadow to reach the meeting point, by the cluster of buildings.
Holywell King George V parkrun: start and briefings
The cluster of buildings you need to reach from the car parks or the entrance to the playing fields will be pretty obvious. If you approach it through the fields from the car park closer to the entrance, you will walk by some fenced off pitches. And then reach a small clearing in front of a short brown building and overlooking the beautiful, green playing fields.
If you venture looking for the toilets behind that building, you will see that some volunteers are also meeting on the back, at the opposite side of the cluster of buildings. Ignore that, that’s where the finish funnel, your first instinct was right.
As 9am approached, one the volunteers took his place on some elevated steps and called for the First Timers Briefing. He was very welcoming, loud and very enthusiastic. Keen to tell us this was a special, new event and he will be proven right over the next 30 minutes or so.
Immediately afterwards, the day’s RD took the same spot and delivered the more standard Main Briefing. After the initial ceremonies, everybody turns 90 degrees left, roughly facing the car park I came from. And that was already the start line, no need to walk anywhere.
After a short countdown, the time came. Parkrun.
Holywell King George V parkrun course review – star ratings
| (0-5) | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
|---|---|
| Location | ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Parking | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Facilities | ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ |
| Hills challenge (lower is easier) | ⭐️ |
| Surface challenge (lower is easier) | ⭐️ |
Holywell King George V parkrun course review – route highlights
There were 139 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Holywell King George V Playing Fields parkrun. I visited on event 15, so still a relatively young venue, but probably old enough to start seeing long term attendance trends. It was also a sunny, warm spring day: will seasonality eventually be a factor here? I doubt it, based on the good quality surface it offers. While clear trends might still be impacted by some abnormal event tourism, it seems like field size has settled in a 150-200 range, with most events around the bottom end of the range.
At these levels, congestion is not an issue. While the path is not very wide, grass verges are always available. The start gets slightly busy, then most of the course is pretty easy going. The next potential bottleneck is the cute twisty bit under trees after the finish funnel, but by that point the field will have thinned out.
Surface-wise, pretty much 100% of the course is run on good, flat hard paths. You will stray off and run on grass verges here and there, some corners or when overtaking. Even then, the grass is cut low and I visited on a dry day. Maybe you could need trail shoes if you plan to overtake a lot or if it has been very wet, but on a moderately dry day road shoes are perfectly fine here. I was wearing trail shoes, but I don’t think they were needed. They probably slowed me down marginally.
Elevation-wise, at 31m elevation gain over nearly 4 laps, Holywell King George V parkrun is essentially flat. There are a couple of short ups and downs around the central building cluster, but they are neither long nor steep. The volunteer who gave the New Joiners Briefing stressed how this can be a PB course. I suspect Cassiobury parkrun is still faster in this area, but I agree it can be fast.
In terms of course layout, it is an irregular loop around the perimeter of the playing fields. Start and finish are not exactly in the same place, so you will run 3 full laps and about 3/4 of a 4th lap.
A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below. This week, the plot does not exactly reflect the event route. My watch did not start properly at the beginning so I missed the first 400m here. It still shows the right route, but it starts earlier, much closer to the start line than it might seem.
As you start, you get going on a very slight positive incline, heading towards the children play area and the fenced off courts. Head slight left and navigate around a small bout of vegetation before turning slightly right and downhill to head towards the car park. Run by the fenced off courts until you reach the edges of the park. Here you will turn 90 degrees left and run a very short segment before turning 90-degrees right. This gets you onto another short segment siding the car park and to the real edge of the playing fields. It is time for another short straight segment that will feed you onto to the Southern long side of the loop. After another 90 degrees turn, obviously.
The long Southern straight is split into 3 rough sections, to keep it interesting. The way back to, roughly, the point opposite the start line is a straight segment with trees on your right and open fields on your left. Then, a short uphill gets you into a central copse of trees. Climb up, cross the shaded trees and then descend onto another open segment. This time you will again run with open fields on your left and slightly more mature trees on your right.
At the end of this segment, turn 90 degrees left again and you are now running back towards the North of the playing fields. This is a fairly regular straight, with a little S-shaped curved around its mid point. Gen-Z readers, this does not mean it’s an unremarkable point, it means it’s at its central point. English, you know… 🙂
At the end of it, another 90-degrees turn left and you are on the final straight. Keep going without straying onto the grass this time. And next time. And the third time. After you leave the finish funnel on your left, there is a turny bit I found quite cute. You run around a large, beautiful tree before turning left again to enter a copse of trees that will lead you down to the other side again after a short downhill. Turn right after the downhill and run by the fields for a short segment before turning right again. Here you face a short uphill that gets you back to the start line. Get there, turn left and you are on to your next lap.
When you reach the home straight for the 4th time, turn left on the grass and go for your sprint finish towards the funnel.
Congratulations on completing Holywell King George V parkrun!
Facilities at Holywell King George V parkrun
Holywell King George V Playing Fields are quite compact, but they offer a lot within a relatively small space. The green area is beautiful, with a well maintained path running along its perimeter. The central cluster of buildings hosts the Community Centre, a cafe sharing space with a bike shop and beautiful children play areas.
Toilets are in a building on the side of the bike shop/cafe. It is a shared toilet room for both male and females with a few booths. It can get busy and there will be a queue before 9am.
The cafe is quite unassuming, in a share space with a bike shop. But it works efficiently and offers a good spread of options, including ice creams. Very welcome with the weather getting warmer. It also has a limited number of outdoor picnic tables, but if they are all taken there is no lack of shaded areas to sit outside on the fields.
As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?
At Holywell King George V parkrun, I ordered a 7UP, a Magnum ice cream and a single espresso. This cost me around £7.1.
Holywell King George V parkrun: Video Highlights
As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂
The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.
Achievements and performance
My visit to Holywell King George V parkrun was mostly motivated by progression in the Golden Wilson Index. Progress in other parkrun challenges was hence not expected.
Now, back to parkrun challenges::
- Freyne Club: now at 58%
- Date Bingo: now at 57%
- LonDone+: now at 80 out of 82
- Wilson Index (<100): now at 27%
- Hertfordshire Regionnaire: now at 9 out of 17
- East of England Regionnaire: now at 13 out of 110
Conclusions
Holywell King George V Playing Fields parkrun is a deceivingly beautiful event. I come with fairly low expectations, but the team has managed to do a lot with the relatively small space it had. The curse is scenic in a calming way and it is various enough to keep things interesting over nearly 4 laps. And that’s a lot, because I definitely do not favour too many laps.
It is quite far from me, so I don’t think I will be visiting again, but if I happen to be in the area I would definitely be happy to run it again. A very nice addition to the Hertfordshire parkrun offering. And the team was wonderfully enthusiastic!
Finally, obviously, thank you, Holywell King George V parkrun team for your hospitality!
