Things to Do in Feltham This Weekend

Open House Festival opens — 21 Hounslow buildings, freeTHE BIG ONE

The Open House Festival runs from Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 September, and this weekend is the first of its two weekends. It is the world’s largest architecture festival — over 800 buildings across all 33 London boroughs open their doors, and every single event is free.

Hounslow has 21 venues taking part — big and small, modern and historic, industrial, religious and domestic. Some are places that are shut to the public for the other 51 weeks of the year.

Two things worth knowing before you set off. Opening times vary building by building, so check the specific venue rather than assuming a standard day. And the most popular sites require free advance booking, which opened on 19 August — if something is fully booked, plenty of the smaller venues are drop-in.

The Hounslow venues are listed on the Council’s own inHounslow calendar, and the full London programme is on the Open House website.

Saturday — Bedfont Lakes parkrunFREE · 09:00

Free timed 5k at Bedfont Lakes Country Park, every Saturday at 9am. Walkers are welcome and there is no time limit — there is always a tail walker at the back. Register once online and your barcode works at any parkrun in the world.

Bring a printed or phone barcode or you will not get a time.

Either day — the parksFREE

Feltham Park, Hanworth Park and Bedfont Lakes Country Park are all open and all free. Bedfont Lakes is the one to pick if you want a proper walk and some birdlife rather than a playground.

If it rains — Leisure WestINDOORS

Cineworld, bowling and the arcades are all on the same site at Leisure West, which makes it the reliable fallback when the weather turns. See the Cinema section below for what is showing.

12–20 September — Open House Festival

Hounslow has 21 buildings taking part in this year's Open House Festival, and one of the four featured neighbourhoods is Feltham, Hanworth and Kempton. Every visit is free, but you need a free Open City account to take part, and some venues need a slot reserved in advance while others are drop-in.

🔗 Feltham, Hanworth & Kempton programme

Source: inHounslow (Hounslow Council)

Saturday 19 September — Bollywood night at KTM ROX

A Feltham networking and Bollywood night from 6pm at KTM ROX, 49 High Street. It is a local independent pub with live music, so this is very much a Feltham night out rather than a trip into town.

Wednesday 23 September — Post-16 options evening

From 3.30pm at The Marjory Kinnon School. For families weighing up what comes after Year 11 — sixth form, college, apprenticeships. Worth the diary note if you have a child in Year 11 now, since applications come round faster than people expect.

Sunday 27 September — Sip & Paint at KTM ROX

From 2pm at KTM ROX, 49 High Street. A painting session with a drink, no experience needed. Same day as the Staines rail closure, so if you are coming from outside Feltham, check your train.

Hounslow Urban FarmFELTHAM

The biggest kids' day out actually inside Feltham, and most people in the town don't realise it's there. It's one of London's largest urban farms, home to five types of pig plus sheep, goats, cows, rabbits, ducks, geese, alpacas, rheas, llamas and peacocks — and a good number of exotic animals too, including snakes, lizards and tortoises.

Three exotic animal encounters run daily, where children can get close to and sometimes hold reptiles and minibeasts, and Ozzie the owl appears at 1.30pm. The 10.30am encounter is aimed specifically at toddlers. There's a toddler area called Tots Stop with soft play, a sensory wall and a small café corner so parents can sit with a hot drink while the little ones play. You can buy animal feed and feed the sheep, goats, cows and alpacas yourself.

Open 10am to 5pm, seven days a week, all year round apart from Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Free car park on site. General admission tickets are valid for 12 months from the date of purchase, so you don't have to book a specific day.

📍 Faggs Road, Feltham TW14 0LZ · 020 8831 9658

🚌 Buses 285 and 490 from outside Feltham station, about 5 minutes. Around a 20 minute walk from the station, or 10 minutes from Hatton Cross on the Piccadilly line.

Ticket prices are listed differently across several third-party sites (roughly £7.50 adult and £6 child, with under-2s free, but family ticket prices disagree). We haven't listed a price here because we couldn't confirm one — check the farm's own site before you go.

Source: Hounslow Urban Farm

Crane Park Island & the Shot Tower

A free nature reserve on an island in the River Crane, managed by the London Wildlife Trust. It's a mix of woodland, scrub, ponds and reedbed, and it's one of the few places locally where you have a real chance of seeing a kingfisher or a water vole. Dragonflies, herons, frogs, toads and newts are all common. Good for a walk with children who want something to look for rather than just green space.

The reserve itself is free and open at all times. At the entrance stands the Shot Tower, a Grade II listed building left over from the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills, restored as a visitor centre with an exhibition and a viewing area near the top.

📍 Crane Park, Twickenham TW2 6AB · footpath access from Hanworth Road and Great Chertsey Road; nearest vehicle access Ellerman Avenue

🚆 Nearest stations are Feltham and Whitton.

Shot Tower opening times are listed differently depending on where you look — the London Wildlife Trust's own page says Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm, while other listings say Sundays only, early afternoon. It's a volunteer-run building, so check before making a special trip for it. The reserve around it is open regardless.

Source: London Wildlife Trust

Rainy day fallbacks

If the weather turns, Leisure West has the cinema and Tenpin bowling under one roof with food on site, and Feltham's arcades are a reliable indoor option with older kids. Both are covered in more detail further down this page.

📍 Air Park Way, Feltham TW13 7LX

Myrtle AvenueTHE CLASSIC

The best-known Heathrow spotting location in the country, and it's on Feltham's doorstep. It's an open field at the end of a residential street, sitting directly under the approach lights for runway 27L. Aircraft pass very low overhead — low enough that you can watch the landing gear come down and feel the engines. There's plenty of open grass, so children can run around between arrivals, and an ice cream van often turns up at weekends.

It only works when aircraft are landing from the east, which depends on the wind. If planes are taking off over you rather than landing, the wind has swung round and it's a quieter day. A flight-tracking app like Flightradar24 will tell you what's coming and from which direction before you set off.

🚇 Hatton Cross (Piccadilly line). Leave the station facing the airport, go right around the building, cross the A30 and continue — the field is on the left, roughly a 10 minute walk.

There are no facilities at all — no toilets, no shelter, no food or drink. Bring what you need. It is a residential street, so don't block driveways, and parking is genuinely difficult on busy weekends. Getting the tube or bus is easier than driving.

Hatton Cross and the perimeter road

If the wind is the other way and Myrtle Avenue isn't working, walking south from Hatton Cross towards the perimeter fence gives you a wider view of the southern runway. You see less dramatic close-ups but more of the airport working — aircraft taxiing, ground vehicles, maintenance areas. Easier with a pushchair than the Myrtle Avenue field, and the station is right there.

Watching and photographing aircraft from public land around Heathrow is entirely legal and has a long history here. Security patrol the perimeter and may ask you to stand back from the fence. Don't climb fences or enter restricted areas.

Best times to go

The morning arrivals bank between about 6am and 9am is the busiest, with long-haul flights landing from Asia, the Middle East and overnight from North America — one after another, barely a gap. The late afternoon peak, roughly 4pm to 8pm, is the other good window. Midday is quieter but Heathrow never really stops.

Afternoon light generally favours the northern side of the airport, morning light the southern side, if anyone in the family is trying to take photographs.

Feltham Park

Green space with tennis courts, a basketball court, a children's playground and benched seating. Free, dawn to dusk.

📍 Feltham Park, Feltham TW14 0JA

Hanworth Park

Nearby green space with walking paths and open fields — good for dog walking and quieter picnics.

Bedfont Lakes Country Park

Around a 15–20 minute walk from Feltham centre, or a short drive. Lakes, nature trails and bird watching. Free entry, open all year.

📍 Clockhouse Lane, Feltham TW14 8QA

Leisure West

Cineworld, Tenpin bowling, and Pizza Hut / Burger King on site.

📍 Air Park Way, Feltham TW13 7LX