Clark Park

I truly have no idea why anyone would give Clark Park anything besides a 5 star rating. I love this place. There are always so many community activities happening here — from chess games, Tai Chi, free movies, farmers markets. It brings together so many facets of the area. In the summer, this park hosts free movies every week, and very good ones. Last summer I watched Selma, the Incredibles, and Best in Show. When they had the movie events there were also food trucks with specials, giveaways, and a host of other local shops selling or promoting.
I’ve never been to the farmers markets but my good friends that live nearby have and rave about it.
The area surrounding it is full of great restaurants and coffee shops, and a handful of trolleys go right by it so it’s very accessible.
There is a playground area, so it’s great for children as well!

This place is great. I met a man named Mac there and he told me he was about to get two thousand dollars in his bank. As far as I’m concerned this place is a wild ride. Two thumbs up Clark park!

I like this park as a meeting place in West Philadelphia. I used to come here for a stroll when buying coffee at Greenline café across the street. I have yet to attend the flea markets or farmers markets on weekends, but it is definitely on my to do list.
This is the perfect park to lay on the grass and read a book. There are people playing volleyball and barbecuing nearby. The Baltimore Avenue Dollar stroll takes place near this park, as there are a plethora of small restaurants and shops.

Clark park is a deluge of humanity, embodying all that is great about the city. From the Uhuru flea market, to movies, to acting, to parties, this park has it all. If you’re in the area and have 10 minutes to swing by you should.
Hi-​lites of the park include the dog bowl, the drum circles, the chess games, and of course the jungle gyms.
Famously, there are LARPers (Live Action Role Players) who come sunday mornings to act out their magical quests. Totally worth getting a coffee at the greenline and watching.
This park is a perfect activity if you have children!

I really love Clark Park! Saturdays are the best day to visit. There is a smaller «tot lot» and a bigger kid playground, a dog bowl where often there are sports games taking place or your kiddo can run around, and plenty of room for my son to ride his scooter around. The farmer’s market at the other part of the park is simply amazing (and maybe year round? I definitely saw it open during the winter). Fruits, vegetables, baked goods, flowers, cheese, mushrooms, meats. pretty much everything you need. There are often food trucks on the weekend as well so you could make a great morning out of it. We are leaving West Philly soon but we hope to continue making the trip to Clark Park!

For a small park, Clark Park has so much personality. The Farmer’s Market on the weekends is not the only reason why this park has so much style. It is surrounded by a plefora of small cafes, restaurants and shops.
The park is located right in the artery of Baltimore Avenue, one of the most diverse locations in West Philly. The only reason why I did not give out a 5-​star rating is because of the dog crap.
Yes, there are literally an abundance of dog poop in the area. It would not be such a problem, as long as you do not sit down on the grass.

I heart Clark Park so hard it hurts. Day or night, you will find people organically drawn to this place to play, to study, to meet, to relax, to party, to explore. There are plenty of organized activities but what really gets me are all the ways that people feel free to gather there just because it’s a sunny Tuesday or a mystical midnight. I have had so many lovely times in this park throughout my life and I look forward to many more. Clark Park Forever!

Farmer’s market on Saturdays and Thursdays, food trucks, flea markets and festivals! Also fun to watch the little kids LARPing and you can learn to play petanque (french bocce) on Sundays!

I attended Clark Park Music & Arts Festival this year as a vendor and the atmosphere was very pleasant. For vendors interested for next year, it wasn’t exactly all I expected in revenue but the atmosphere and the networking was warm and friendly.
Great day in the park!

long ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth, including (but not limited to) west philly. this was a really long time ago. way before will smith was sent off to bel air.
anyway as we all know a meteor hit the earth and suddenly there were no more dinosaurs. however, we now have clark park, as well as plenty of semi-​affordable apartments in the surrounding area for aspiring vegetarian cat ladies who enjoy knitting.
clark park is cool, but it seems a little disjointed with chester ave cutting it down the middle. how many times have i been told «hey, come meet us at clark park!» and then i get there and walk around in circles for a half hour like an idiot before i realize my friends are across the street, ready to leave.
also, i am not a big fan of the lack of restroom options. the port-​a-​potties there are fucking disgusting. i know, i know, if you hang out at clark park you probably live at 46^th and baltimore, so what do you care? i believe every public park should have an olympic-​sized restroom building in the center, beaming with light like a beacon and having fancy music playing 24 hours a day. sort of like a casino, but without the gambling — just the restroom aspect.
as for the crater in the middle of the park… i don’t know… you can’t lay down there. that’s where people unleash their dogs and babies. i guess it’s probably cool in the winter for sledding, but otherwise, i would much rather see the park people fill it with water and make a lake (or swimming pool) or pave it over and make a skate bowl.
so overall, clark park is a pretty chill place to relax and fall asleep under a tree, and for that i must say that i am truly a fan, and it deserves four shining stars.

A little park but a good place for sledding in the winter. It seems to be a very nice place to bring your kids to the playground or spending time with the family.

I have great memories of Clark Park. We take our son here all the time, to run around the dog bowl, zoom down the slides, and even to sled. There are also some neat events held here: Shakespeare in the Park, the little LARPers, and other great bits of West Philly culture.
All that said, this isn’t actually that great of a park. It’s the park we have, and it’s better than nothing – and we even do some awesome things there – but it’s not a great park. I fear the people writing all these 5-​star reviews have never been to a real park before.
First, i’s very poorly maintained. The grass is patchy and eyesore, the sidewalks are cracked, there’s often trash all over the place. The turtle play-​thing is grimy and seems to never be cleaned. The benches are breaking and often smell of piss.
Also, when there are events here, especially large BBQ’s or parties, there are always people openly smoking weed all over the place. I really don’t care what people do in their own homes, but this is a park – a place for children to play. The guys patrolling the place don’t seem to care about this, often walking right past it without so much as a second look.
Clark Park is one of the most charming places in West Philly, and I often have fun there, but let’s not pretend it’s a better park than it really is. Take off the rose-​colored glasses for a minute and think about it.

In honor of completing the Unilocal 100 Challenge (!!!) McThrill (16) decided to resurrect the interactive trend that I started with my 700^th review of the Clark Park (17) Flea Market (
), since a significant update to Mcthrill’s (18) previous Clark Park (19) review has been at least 3 years in the making. So without further adieu I bid you okole maluna!
When McThrill (20) left his West Philly abode for South Philly pastures a few years back it was somewhat bittersweet because his beloved Clark Park (21) was caged like a beast and he wasn’t able to go for one final rendezvous. But McThrill (22) understood and supported the reason, for before the caging Clark Park’s (23) sidewalks were left in complete and total disarray and in need of some significant repair, and the necessary funding was in place to make sure that Clark Park (24) would be better than ever upon its reopening.
So wait for over a year McThrill (25) did, and on several of his returns since McThrill (26) has become enamored by the changes that have been added to his beloved Clark Park (27). The pavement has been repaved to perfection and leads to things like the Lewis Carroll statue even better. While things like the old school Clark Park (28) turtle might be missing, the new orange communal chairs make for even more of a welcoming centerpiece (and McThrill (29) is surprised that many of them haven’t been stolen!). Add in plenty of old staples like the Clark Park (30) Farmers Market, the volleyball games, and LARP swordfights, and Clark Park (31) is still a classic that McThrill (32) loves!

We just love this park. I’ll pack up the kids & drive across the Walt just to come here on a fine Saturday afternoon. The park is actually 2 city blocks large & there is always something fun happening here on a Saturday morning or afternoon.
We like to visit the playgrounds, of which there are 2, both the toddler one & the «big» kids one. Kid #1 has recently decided he is ready to «graduate» to the big kids area because they have real swings & longer slides. They both have that springy, foamy stuff covering the ground so any falls are somewhat helped by that.
The fancy lunch trucks parked here are also a big draw. Delicious offerings may include Middle Eastern, vegan banh-​mi and a taco/​torta truck… yum! All reasonably priced too. And of course, there is the year-​round Clark Park farmer’s market that lines the other side of the park. That’s a whole other review in itself.
Shakespeare in the Park, monthly flea markets and more can be found here. It’s nice to give the little ones a taste of city life on a regular basis too I think. It may not always be pretty, but it’s usually a pretty fun time at Clark Park.

Clark Park is my favorite park in the city. For non city-​dwellers, it’s hard to imagine the scarcity of open lawns and tree-​lined parks in a city as compact and efficient as Philadelphia. Growing up in West Virginia, I took elbow room for granted.
There are a few nice spots in Philly, don’t get me wrong. I love Franklin and Rittenhouse, Washington and the Schuylkill, but true-​to-​form traditional parks are hard to come by. Clark Park has something for everybody. A playground for young children and toddlers, a basketball court, a deep indented bowl that usually houses roaming dogs and frisbee-​throwers (I wonder if this used to be a man-​made lake?). On Saturdays, there’s the farmer’s market, which is definitely worth a browse — especially the Dutch specialties usually on the corner of Baltimore and 43^rd. Their breads and pastries look amazing.
And so much of a park is context. Catty-​cornered from the Batlimore Ave. side of Clark Park is Green Line Café, my favorite coffee spot in West Philly. Down on Spruce is the Local 44, or farther along on Baltimore is Dock Street Brewing and the Gold Standard. Something for everyone’s tastes, which is a nice image for Clark Park, which also has a little of something for everyone. For your dog-​walkers and your stroller-​pushers, your poor college student and middle-​class family, the grounds are equal and free for all. What a deal!

This review is just for the Dog Bowl:
This area is more like a «unofficial dog park». It’s a wide and long hollowed-​out area where your pooches can play. That being said, if you are afraid of dogs, I wouldn’t come near here; there aren’t any fences. There aren’t any poop bags or water for your dogs. Another thing, the center has been worn and there’s more dirt than grass, leading to muddled pants even when it’s dry. I imagine that it could get real dirty after some rain.
It’s a large spot for dogs to play, but I can’t see myself going out of my way to come here.

Something nice about Clark Park is that it’s like a community meeting spot. If you sit here on a sunny weekend afternoon, you’re likely to run into everyone you know who’s even remotely from the area.

When people say ‘park’ in Philly, they usually mean something like Rittenhouse, which isn’t much of a park to begin with. This is an ACTUAL park, fields and trees and lots of room to wander.
Clark is split in two, and each side is different. On one half, you have a gravel area with little tables and chairs, always frequented by awkward first dates and older gentlemen playing chess.
The other side holds a good amount of play equipment for kids and the infamous ‘dog bowl,’ a hollow that’s large enough for people to let their dogs loose. It’s all been rehabbed recently, so a lot of the issues that older reviews here mention aren’t relevant any more.
The only downside are the occasionally sketch begging people. Especially from dusk onwards, there tend to be a number of them, and they aren’t shy about following you around even after you refuse to give them money or cigarettes.

Clark Park turned on the charm for me. My first visit there and I used to live within 15 blocks of it, I somehow had to wait until I got a dog to check out «the bowl».
the fun flowed out while the pup ran around and made new friends. nice people with cool dogs, a soccer game, and people watching until dark. i saw a chess game going on too.

Clark Park captures the essence of West Philly and everything I love about it. I often ride my bike up on weekend mornings, paper and coffee in hand, Honest Tom’s breakfast taco in the other, and Giles (my dog) pulling me through the live action role players as he springs to steal their plastic swords. After a quick stroll through the park, I’ll walk over to the farmer’s market for a fresh peach and sit in the grass until I can feel the dew wetting my bottom.
It doesn’t get much better.