Boulders

Just outside Waltham Cross, Boulders is a gallery that punches above its weight in a county not known for contemporary art spaces. The work on show tends toward sculpture and installation - pieces that need room to breathe, which this place gives them. It's the sort of venue where you might spend two hours properly looking, or forty minutes if the current exhibition doesn't grab you. Either way, there's no pretension about it.

The space itself is worth noting: it feels less like a white-cube gallery and more like a real working space, which some visitors find refreshing and others find a bit rough around the edges. That said, it attracts serious artists and curators, so the quality of what's on is genuinely variable - sometimes brilliant, sometimes bewildering.

If you're based at one of the nearby parks - Fowley Mead is barely two miles away - this works as a half-day cultural break from the caravan. Families with teenagers who actually like art will get something from it. Young kids will probably find it dull unless there's an interactive show on. Check what's running before you go; the programme is the real draw here.

Getting there from Waltham Cross takes fifteen minutes by car, less if traffic cooperates. Go midweek if you can - weekends tend to bring the crowds who are actually looking for somewhere to eat rather than somewhere to think.