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I wandered down an alley in Birmingham and got into the ‘secret’ park for free.

I wouldn’t normally recommend wandering down mysterious alleys, but hear me out. It wasn’t a dark and dirty one after all. This narrow passageway, between a Dixons estate agent and a community centre, has been decorated with some of the most amazing street art I’ve ever seen.

I was exploring the Moseley Farmers Market, sipping an epic hot chocolate and making a total mess of it when the alley caught my eye. I hadn’t even noticed it at first, the subconscious part of my brain assumed it probably just led to a junk shop in the back, but I saw several people get off the main street and disappear. So it had to lead somewhere.




I had just stifled the urge to take a quick look, deciding that following strangers down a lane was never a good thing to do, when I spotted a metal sign above that read ‘Moseley Park & ​​Pool’. Aha!

Read more: I visited a lovely village near Birmingham for a pub lunch and can see why the locals are worried

I knew the place was around here somewhere – a private park that requires a £60-a-year key to enter – but I’d never seen the entrance. I must have walked past it a dozen times before without realizing it.

Curiosity got the best of me and I turned off the main Alcester Road, away from the busy market stalls, determined to take a closer look. At the bottom, an iron fence separated the driveway from the park, but the gate was wide open. A sign confirmed that today was open house—the park opens to the public every month during the farmers market—so we went inside to explore.

I couldn’t imagine a nicer place in the city to do yoga(Image: Emily Chaplin/BirminghamLive)

Tall trees sheltered the main dirt track from the rain, while smaller paths led into the woods and around the back of a small wooden yoga hut that a sign told me served “coffee on the deck.”

Patches of grass were dotted with bells and birds sang loudly overhead. It was beautiful and so peaceful here – hard to believe the busy street was only a few meters away.

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