06/01/2022 02:54:47 PM
39. Swan Lane Open Space
This park is a little haven, by the busy A1000 in Whetstone. I’ve been there twice. The first time was in about 1988, when my elder daughter was aged about three and we were new to the area. The second was at the start of the pandemic, just before the first lockdown. It was also the start of our lockdown park visits. Jack’s college had had to close without warning, and my overriding memory is of bewilderment, of wondering what was going to happen and for how long it would go on. I still have no answers.
The park is a section of the old Finchley Common. It was created in the nineteen-thirties on the site of former gravel pits, beside a nineteenth-century estate. It’s the smallest of Barnet’s premier parks. It has a children's playground, including an artificial rock created to look like a sandstone boulder containing an ammonite. There’s also a café (with a toilet), and a pond covered with reeds and water plants, fed by a natural spring. It’s thought that the spring was used as a place of baptism by Cedd, 2nd Bishop of London, in the seventh century. Much of the park is mown grass, with paths for walking and benches, and large trees, but it also has more natural areas managed for nature conservation with long grass and smaller trees.
There’s a group of giant redwoods and a Cedar of Lebanon inside a wooded area planted with conifers at the entrance on High Road, Whetstone. Rose beds by the café have been planted in memory of two local residents and there is also a memorial to a local lollipop man.
Those of us over a certain age and level of nerdiness may be interested to note that, in the early 1970s, a scene from the Monty Python ‘Hell’s Grannies’ sketch (itself shot nearly entirely in North Finchley) was filmed in the park.
There is access to the park from Swan Lane, Whetstone High Road and Woodside Lane. There’s no car park but there are spaces on the surrounding streets.
Judith Field
Swan Lane Open Space, Swan Lane, London N20 0PR
Judith & Jack's Park of the Week
23/12/2021 02:49:45 PM
38. Oak Hill Park
When Jack and I visited East Barnet’s Oak Hill Park in April 2020, there was talk of parks being closed as park of the lockdown. I was pleased to note that it would be hard to close this one, as there were no park railings - on Church Hill Road at least - just small wooden stakes. Perhaps this one could stay open. Of course, things never came to that.
It’s one of Barnet’s premier parks and won a green Flag Award in 2009-10. Part of the park became Oak Hill Wood, a Local Nature Reserve in 1997. Pymmes Brook and the Pymmes Brook Trail pass through the park. The brook rises in Hadley Common in Barnet and eventually joins the River Lea in Tottenham Hale.
East Barnet is, apparently, the oldest local settlement and the original Barnet. Oak Hill dates back to at least the 11th century, as part of the Monkenfrith estate owned by the church. Some of the original trees were used in the building of St Albans Abbey and their descendants are found in Oak Hill Woods. In 1536, after the dissolution of the Monasteries, the estate was sold and remained in private ownership until most it was bought by the local authority in 1930 and Oak Hill Park was established in 1933.
The park has its own ancient woodland of oak and hornbeam. There are two nature trails through the woodland and the woods, and the surrounding meadows are a Local Nature Reserve. Oak Hill Park has been home to a weekly 5k Parkrun since August 2011.
The park has gardens, a bowling green, cricket and football pitches, multi-sports court, an outdoor gym, toilets and play areas. It also has a café with a soft play area for children. The café sells all sorts of food including home-made traditional Polish dishes (I do like pierogi, as long as they’re vegetarian, and two of those on the menu are).
There’s access from Church Hill Road, Parkside Gardens, Daneland and Vernon Crescent. There’s a car park, but it’s easy to find parking spaces on the surrounding streets.
Judith Field
Oak Hill Park, Parkside Gardens, East Barnet EN4 8JP
16/12/2021 11:43:00 AM
37. O R Tambo Recreation Ground
When we visited this park in Muswell Hill in January, it was called Albert Road Recreation Ground. In February, it was renamed O R Tambo Recreation Ground, in memory of Oliver Reginald Tambo, leader of the African National Congress during the apartheid years in South Africa. He lived in exile in Haringey for over twenty years, settling with his family in Muswell Hill and visiting the park regularly. South Africa had given Haringey a statue of Tambo in 2019, unveiled on what would have been his 102nd birthday by his daughter Nomatemba “Thembi” Tambo, South African High Commissioner to the UK. The statue stands in the park.
A century ago, the park was an area of land with a brook running through it (you’ll no doubt be sorry to see that I don’t know which one – but perhaps it was the Muswell Stream). The land around it was developed in the early twentieth century for housing and in 1925, the park changed from an informal open space to a formal recreation ground. It is designated Metropolitan Open Land and is also a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, because of its areas of rough grassland, birch woodland, mature oak trees and relics of ancient hedgerows. It was first awarded the Green Flag Award in 2006 and kept it ever since.
The park has a large open field, bowling green and pavilion, basketball and football pitches, tennis courts, table-tennis tables, a multi-use games area and a children’s playground. There is a café and also public toilets, locked when the café is closed. There are rose beds, shrubs, deciduous and coniferous trees, and a nature area with a pond. The park has footpaths and places to sit. There is no car park but it’s possible to park on the surrounding streets.
Access is from an entrance on Albert Road, two on Durnsford Road and two on Bidwell Gardens.
Judith Field
O.R. Tambo Recreation Ground, Albert Road, New Southgate N22 7XL
09/12/2021 05:07:08 PM
36. The Mill Field
We live in Mill Hill. When I Googled the place recently, one of the suggested searches was ‘is Mill Hill posh?’ Posh isn’t a word I like, as it seems often to have an envious subtext, but I clicked it anyway. It took me to an estate agent’s site, where I read that Mill Hill is renowned for its beautiful parks and green spaces.
The Mill Field, on The Ridgeway, Mill Hill is one of them, and a gem, hidden if you only look at the road when you’re driving. Jack asked to go to ‘the park near Sweet Tree Fields Farm’ (the wonderful inclusive farm he attends once a week), and when I looked at the map I realised The Mill Field was the one he meant. I’d driven past it many times and not noticed it. My excuse is that it’s on a winding bit of the where you have to concentrate, I mean concentrate more.
It’s a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation and is a public open space sloping slopes steeply down from the road. It’s thought that it might be the site of the windmill which gave the area its name. This was documented as early as 1321 but had disappeared by 1754.
The upper part of the field has good views across west London. It’s managed as a park and has a football pitch. The lower slopes are less managed, with grassland, hedgerows marking former field boundaries, scattered trees, and areas of undergrowth. We walked in this part too, and it was dense enough with trees that I had to note landmarks and remember which way we’d walked so we didn’t get lost (something I find very easy to do). Here, a small stream, flows from a spring fed pond, where wildflowers grow. The stream is probably a tributary of Burnt Oak Brook (It is a tributary of the Silk Stream, which is a tributary of the River Brent, which is a tributary of the River Thames. Here we go again).
There are places to park along The Ridgeway but there are some parking restrictions. Guess how I know...
Judith Field
The Mill Field, The Ridgeway, London NW7 4EB
02/12/2021 05:44:43 PM
35. King George Recreation Ground
We’ve been to large parks and tiny ones on our travels. Some have been hardly bigger than our garden and to make it worthwhile now that we’re having to travel further from home in search of new places to visit, I look for larger green spaces on the map.
King George Recreation Ground, The park, in Bushey, is one of the larger ones. It was originally part of the countryside, and you can still see a lot of the original layout there: furrows, ancient hedgerows, and 250 year-old oak trees. It was developed from fields that a farmer had let local children play in as the ground was too dry in summer, and wet in winter, for hay production and grazing.
The park was opened in 1912, to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population of Bushey. During the opening ceremony, the Chairman of the local authority said “Healthy boys or girls are not satisfied with spending their leisure hours indoors; they must get out in the open air and have something to do. If not, they are liable to get into mischief and who could blame them?” I often felt like that during lockdown, if you substitute “go mad” for “get into mischief” so although it was quite a long way from here, I found it worth visiting.
It was refurbished in 1998, after which it got its first Green Flag Award, which it has kept since then.
It has a café with toilets, bowling club, tennis and multi-sports courts, outdoor table tennis tables, an outdoor gym and plenty of places to sit. There’s a big area of open grassland and trees, , a wildflower meadow and a children’s play area. The park is designated a destination site for inclusive play, which means that there should be equipment suitable for those of all physical abilities, for example a ground-level access roundabout. I wish that also meant giant swings for the 25 year olds.
There’s a ‘splash park’ paddling pool – open from May over the summer months.
There are five entrances, including King George Avenue and Chiltern Avenue so it’s easy enough to park on the road, but the park has its own car park.
King George Avenue, Bushey, WD23 4NT
25/11/2021 04:08:37 PM
34. Edgwarebury Park
Because Jack makes a fuss if we visit a park more than once, we’re going further and further away from home in search of open spaces. That said, Edgwarebury Park is one that’s close to home. We accidentally visited it twice, the second time coming after I noticed it on a map and wondered why we hadn’t been before. Jack pointed out at top volume that we had. That’s what happens when I don’t read my parks list first. For everyone else, it’s worth more than one visit.
It’s one of Barnet’s Premier Parks and a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation – there are old oak and ash trees, and lots of birds. It was once part of the manor of Earlsbury, first mentioned in 1216. In the later Middle Ages it was owned by All Souls College, Oxford, and you can still see evidence of the older landscape of fields and woodland, such as old hedgerows. The local authority bought part of the land in 1929, and the rest in 1932, when the park opened. In the 1990s Watling Chase Community Forest (an area of 72 square miles located in north London and south Hertfordshire around Potters Bar, Radlett, Borehamwood and Barnet) planted a new block of woodland in the north east corner.
So often during our walks we find streams and brooks, criss-crossing like interacting lines on the Underground map, all eventually finding their way to the Thames. I’ve spent much time looking at river maps – and that’s before you look for the hidden or lost ones. Edgwarebury Park’s no exception to this. To the south, the land slopes towards Edgwarebury Brook, a tributary of Deans Brook, which is a tributary of the Silk Stream, which is a tributary of the River Brent, which is a tributary of the River Thames.
The park has formal and informal gardens. One garden has scented plants with rosemary, catmint and other aromatic species, designed for partially sighted visitors (and cats, I suppose). There’s also a rose garden, playground, tennis and multi-sports courts, football and cricket pitches and an outdoor gym. There are hard and soft paths and plenty of places to sit.
There is access from Edgware Way and Edgwarebury Lane. There’s no car park but it’s straightforward to find a space on nearby streets.
Judith Field
Edgwarebury Park, Edgwarebury Lane, HA8 8QP
18/11/2021 04:57:07 PM
33. Roundwood Park
This formal Victorian Park in Willesden has English Heritage grade two listed status and holds the Green Flag Award.
In the 19th century it was known as both Knowles Hill and Hunger Hill Common Field. In 1892 the local authority bought the land, consisting of a hill and a few trees, from the owner of Roundwood House. After a lot of work by the architect and surveyor Oliver Claude Robson and further development, the park was opened in 1895. At the opening the Chairman of the Parks Committee described it as ‘a veritable Garden of Eden without the serpents.’ Close to the main entrance is a roofed drinking fountain built in 1895 to commemorate the opening. Two oak trees were planted in 1897 in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. To mark the 100th anniversary of the park in 1995, the paved rosebush-lined central pathway was fitted out with new seats and a Victorian-style gazebo.
The park is mainly laid to open lawns crossed by paths, with shrub beds, rockeries, and mature trees. There’s a café with an outdoor sitting area, and toilets (inside), a children’s playground, outdoor gym, and a bowling green. There’s also an aviary, housing zebra finches, cockatiels, canaries, and golden pheasants. It also has budgies, so we were able to say hello to Peppy and Bilbo again (see Pinner Memorial Park) and their grey friend Cloudy.
The paths lead to a viewing area at the top of a hill, from which you can see Wembley Stadium. The park is bounded on the north by Willesden New and Willesden Jewish Cemeteries, which you can also see from the hill. I don’t know whether it was for this reason that a man sitting on a bench some distance away was singing ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’, accompanying himself on the guitar. It might have been a coincidence, but I thought it was peculiar and rather tasteless, particularly as we visited in November 2020, shortly after the second national lockdown had been enforced.
There is no on-site carpark but there is space available on nearby streets.
Judith Field
Roundwood Park, Harlesden Road, London NW10 3SH
10/11/2021 04:39:47 PM
32. Northway Gardens
This park, in Hampstead Garden Suburb, consists of three areas of gardens stretching from Addison Way to Kingsley Way. The park is tucked away, making it another hidden gem, separated from the houses on either side by hedging. The Mutton Brook runs through the gardens in a channel with a bridge across, part lined by willows. The park is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation.
It was laid out as part of the ‘New Suburb’ in 1911 when land was purchased to the east of the original Hampstead Garden Suburb. The first of the three sections, to the west, has woodland and grass. There are formal gardens and tennis courts in the middle area, and ornamental shrubs and trees in the third section, where there’s a children’s playground. There are no toilets nor a café.
The park is being refurbished by local volunteers, the Northway Gardens Organisation. They’ve done a lot of work clearing dead trees and shrubs, have completely replanted the previously abandoned rose gardens and put up a pergola. They’ve also replanted the flower beds.
The park is part of the Capital Ring Walk. This is a circular Walk London route, consisting of fifteen sections between Woolwich and Becton District Park and Northway Gardens is part of the section between Hendon Park and Highgate. The Transport for London website is full of information about the walk, including ‘did you know?’ snippets. One that caught my eye is that the benighted North Circular Road is considered the noisiest road in Britain, topping a poll organised by the UK Noise Association. All the more reason for me to avoid it. If only I didn’t have to take it as part of my quest to find parks to visit that don’t involve turning right at the end of our road – as stipulated by Jack. So far, our travels have taken us along it from Hanger Lane to the Great Cambridge Roundabout, and we haven’t finished yet. One hundred and forty-two parks and counting.
Judith Field
Northway Gardens, Northway, London NW11 6RJ
04/11/2021 05:53:21 PM
31. Bush Hill Park
Jack and I visited this Enfield park in April 2021, and it was our first visit of the year when the weather was warm and dry enough for us to be able to sit on one of the many benches, relax and look into the distance. The main area is a flat open space which made this easy.
The park has formal gardens and some rose beds, with avenues of trees including horse chestnuts and oaks. It has basketball, football and tennis courts, a children’s playground, skate park, outdoor gym and picnic tables. There are toilets but no café, although there is a drinking water fountain, if you fancy imagining you’re back in school. The park is clean and well kept. Dogs are allowed in most areas.
The Bush Hill area was once part of Old Park Estate, a Royal property pre-dating the Domesday survey of 1086. In 1660, Charles II granted the estate to the Duke of Albemarle, and it passed through many owners, until it was broken up for building in 1871. The Local Authority bought part of it and the Bush Hill Park Pleasure Grounds were opened in 1908.
Part of the park has been made into a community wildlife garden with ponds, a wildflower meadow, native trees, and shrubs.
A bug hotel and log pile provide habitats for a range of butterflies, insects, and birds. As a work in progress, there’s a willow dome: a willow trained over a wicker shape. Over time the branches will shoot new growth to create a green living dome to sit underneath. The Friends of Bush Hill Park commissioned A wildlife artist created a mural with mural showing the animals and plants in the park. The artist will create an educational factsheet about the artwork, to help people identify the birds, invertebrates, mammals and plants shown. The Friends Group plan to use the factsheet with local schools and other groups.
Judith Field
Bush Hill Park, Lincoln Road, Enfield EN1 1PS
