25/05/2021 05:12:45 PM
20. Arrandene Open Space
This week I’m writing about a place in Mill Hill, close enough to our house for us to go there on foot. We visited in May 2021, as you can see from the photos (especially the one of what Jack, Mill Hill’s answer to David Attenborough, called a “red bug”), the weather was much drier and sunnier than this May has been – though things are looking up at last.
Arrandene is a site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. It’s surprisingly rural, for a place surrounded by residential streets. The Council purchased it in 1929 to preserve it for public recreation, when there was a lot of local suburban development going on. It’s on a hilly site and contains mixture of open space (rough grassland divided by ancient hedgerows) and woodland. It contains a traditionally managed hay meadow dating from the Victorian times and the need to feed horses (see also Sunny Hill Park below). There’s a network of footpaths with some benches, and a horse ride. In one of the open parts is a row of trees, each with a plaque commemorating a Mayor of Barnet.
The plants spotted there are apparently uncommon, but characteristic of unimproved grassland. Some of these have wonderful names: adder’s-tongue fern, ragged robin and, in particular, sneezewort (which has a smell that is meant to makes you sneeze). Some words have an appealing sound to me, if pronounced the right way, and sneezewort is one. I’ve been repeating it while writing this, and it’s most efficacious in keeping the “where’s the”/ “I want” mob out of the room. It's home to various birds, such as woodpecker, tawny owl and kestrel, and animals such as squirrels, foxes, rabbits and muntjac deer.
There are two small ponds. One is served by a tiny stream that had dried up when we visited. The other is overshadowed by trees and can only be seen from Mill Hill School because it’s otherwise cut off by a dense bramble thicket (more blackberries for us!).
Arrandene seems popular with local dog walkers, particularly the professionals who turn up with van loads of dogs to walk at the same time. There are entrances in Wise Lane, Milespit Hill and Wills Grove, all NW7 and there are spaces to park on the street.
Judith Field
Arrandene Open Space, Wise Lane, London NW7 2RS
20/05/2021 10:49:54 AM
19. Hendon Park
This large hillside park was originally part of a medieval estate, the Steps Fields. In 1903 the Council opened it to the public. It’s one of Barnet’s Premier Parks, a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and it won the Green Flag Award in 2009-10.
Many mature trees survive from the original planting and the landscape includes one of the largest specimens of Japanese maple in London, which was recognised as one of the Great Trees of London in 2008. These are sixty one trees listed by Trees for Cities after the Great Storm of 1987, following suggestions from the general public.
The park includes a Holocaust memorial garden enclosed by large hedges. It contains a pond, many plants and an arch was installed there in 2000, with a plaque next to it explaining that the Hebrew word is pronounced ‘lezikaron’, referring to remembering the past and looking forwards.
The Children’s Millennium Wood planted in 2000 is a native tree and grassland area. The rest of the park is mainly informal parkland, with mown grass and mature trees, especially London plane and lime. There are benches to sit on and relax – Jack seems to be very good at spotting them and will charge away to an empty one to stake his claim, leaving me to stagger along and join him as soon as I can.
If you go at the right time of year, you’ll find wild blackberries. Part of our ritual last year was to pick a berry and eat it whenever we saw them and we’ll be doing that again this summer, assuming we get one.
The park has tennis and basketball courts, exercise machines and five a side football pitches. There are children’s playgrounds and a bowling green. Next to the park entrance is what may be the only Kosher park café in London. There’s a small car park next to the café on Queen’s Road, where it’s free to park for the first 30 minutes. Otherwise, Hendon Central Station is a short walk away.
Hendon Park, 17 Queens Rd, London NW4 2TL
13/05/2021 11:55:15 AM
18. Big Wood and Little Wood
I’m writing about two places this week, because although we visited them on separate occasions, they’re almost next to each other in Hampstead Garden Suburb. We went to Big Wood first, and then happened across an entrance to Little Wood a couple of weeks later on our way to somewhere else.
Together, the two woods make up a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, and a Local Nature Reserve. Like Coldfall Wood (see my very first post, below), they’re remnants of more extensive woods that used to cover the area over a thousand years ago, gradually reduced in area as new fields were made. Because of this, the plants and animals are the same in both woods. The trees are mainly oaks, but there are also holly and hazel, and the wild service trees and wild crab apples that are characteristic of ancient woodland. There’s an undergrowth of bramble and ivy and bluebells (but not when we were there in January and February). Birds include tawny owl, nuthatch, woodpecker, and treecreeper. Cuckoos visit, but later in the year.
Big Wood seems to be popular, considering how many people were there late on a January afternoon, walking with and without dogs and jogging. It’s crossed by tarmacked main paths (with benches), which would make it possible to take a wheelchair or buggy. Cycling is not allowed.
Little Wood was a lot quieter when we were there – we didn’t see anyone else during our walk. The paths there are not tarred. It has an open-air theatre, built in 1920 and restored in 1997. The picture shows all we could see, but the Garden Suburb Theatre put on performances there regularly and the next one is due in July. There are no cafés or toilets in either wood.
You can access Big Wood from Temple Fortune Hill, Northway, Oakwood Road and Denman Drive South (all NW11) and to Little Wood from Denman Drive North and Addison Way (NW11). There are no car parks, but we easily found a space to park in nearby streets.
Big Wood: Temple Fortune Hill, NW11
Little Wood: Addison Way, NW11
06/05/2021 08:23:52 PM
17. Canons Park
This large park, Between Edgware and Stanmore, is described by the London Borough of Harrow as the jewel in the crown of their parks.
The name comes from the former landowners, the canons of the Priory of St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, who were granted six acres of land there in 1331. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the land was sold into private hands. Canons Park is mainly located on the site of the early eighteenth-century country house, Cannons, built in 1725, by the 1st Duke of Chandos. The house was demolished in 1744. North London Collegiate School is next to the park, built on part of the same land.
The park has received the Green Flag Award and is also Grade II listed. It includes a number of listed buildings, including a nineteenth-century mock temple. Inside the park is the walled King George V Memorial Garden, which was converted in 1937 from part of the Duke’s kitchen gardens once the park was opened to the public. This garden was closed when we went last August owing to Covid restrictions, but I believe it’s now open again. It has a pond that’s home to frogs and newts.
Jack and I liked Canons Park a lot – there is plenty of space, woodland walks, trees, and flowers. It’s not just a flat landscape like some of the places I’m not going to write about. There’s a café, a children’s play area and exercise machines. A flat pathway runs around the park making the whole space accessible. It also hosts a 5km park run.
Jack had been there before, without me, but I managed to get away with this second trip for him and the first for me. It’s the site of the Shaw Trust Foundation Horticulture Enterprises, where he had attended several times while at college. He likes gardening.
There are entrances to the park from Canons Drive, Donnefield Avenue, Howberry Road and Whitchurch Lane. There isn’t a car park, so you’ll need to find a space on the nearby streets, but some have restricted parking hours. It’s close to Canons Park Underground station.
Canons Park, Howberry Road, Edgware, HA7 4SD
29/04/2021 08:45:26 PM
16. Stationers Park
This little park is in the eastern part of Crouch End, and it was another one of our random places to visit that I found on a map. I was glad I chose it because it’s small but sweet. It was built on the site of the former Stationer’s Company’s school in 1987, which is how it comes to be surrounded by residential streets. It has been a Green Flag Award winner since 2011 and was refurbished in 2012.
It’s next to a primary school and we turned up just as the kids were shooting out like champagne from a Formula One winner’s bottle, only louder, but even so it wasn’t too busy except in the older kids’ play area. That has some amazing equipment, including a massive wooden fort with slides, and one of the giant swings Jack likes. There is also a play area for younger children, tennis and basketball courts and a concrete table tennis table. It’s too small to host any sort of park run but, I read that a circular walk on the paths around the park is just over 300m in length and five circuits is close to a mile.
The park has two ponds, although one of them has dried out and is in the process of being restored. For such a small park there are a lot of different areas: large trees to sit under, green spaces laid out with picnic tables and there are benches throughout. There’s a good food kiosk selling home -made cakes. I got Jack a lolly ice and we sat for a while. It was a chance for some people watching.
There are four public entrances into Stationers Park, two from Denton Road and two from Mayfield Road. You can park on nearby streets but be careful because the parking is residents’ only between 12 and 2 from Monday to Friday. Nearby public transport within walking distance includes Finsbury Park underground station, Harringay mainline station and the W5 bus.
Judith Field
Stationers Park, Mayfield Road, N8 9LP
23/04/2021 10:38:16 AM
15. East Finchley Cemetery
This week I’m writing about a different sort of place. First, it’s the exception to Jack’s rule that we can only go to a park once. Second, it isn’t a park. East Finchley Cemetery (which Jack calls “the fishpond”) is part of our Shabbat afternoon ritual. Every week since the start of lockdown, we have visited it to feed the goldfish in the pond. It means we must have been there over fifty times, even once when the pond was frozen and the food we dropped in sat on top of the ice (I hoped it might still be there when the ice melted).
It’s a beautiful and uncrowded place to walk, with Gothic-style chapels and gate lodges and decorative Edwardian mausoleums, a number of which are listed buildings. Some of the graves date from the mid-nineteenth century and a few of the names on the memorials have given me ideas for characters in stories. Some famous burials include conductor Leopold Stokowski, cartoonist Heath Robinson (see also post number 5 – Pinner Memorial Park), PC Keith Blakelock (murdered in the Tottenham riot) and music hall singer Harry Champion (“Boiled Beef and Carrots”, “I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am“, “Any Old Iron”). There is a plot of military graves from the first and second World Wars.
Despite being close to the benighted North Circular Road there’s no traffic noise. There is a lot of open space, woodland, trees and shrubbery and grassland with naturalised bulbs. It has won a Green Flag Award and was voted cemetery of the year in 2007. It’s a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation and we’ve seen muntjac deer, a range of woodland birds and, once, a group of people riding penny farthing bikes.
Here’s a map showing where the fishpond is (the red arrow).
We drive the long way round, but the quickest is to go down central avenue then right into south avenue and follow a sign to the “LP section” (whatever that stands for). There is a gap in the hedge leading to a grass area with memorial trees planted and the pond is to the right, at the top of a terraced garden of memorial rose bushes.
The main entrance of the cemetery is on East End Road and this is the best one to use if you’re driving. There is also an entrance next to Christ’s College, but for some reason there are barriers across the paths that means you can only see a small part of the cemetery if you’re driving, and not the part where the pond is. There’s no problem with parking once you’re inside. It’s a ten-minute walk from East Finchley station and the 143 bus stops outside.
Judith Field
East Finchley Cemetery, 122 East End Road, London N2 0RZ
15/04/2021 06:19:30 PM
14. Oakwood Park
Oakwood Park, in Enfield, is another example of a park created from the grounds of a grand house. It’s on land that was originally part of Enfield Chase, a royal hunting ground. Later the area became part of an estate called Oak Lodge, including a house, which was demolished in about 1920. It was opened as a park in 1927.
In the park you can still see the ice well that belonged to the house, dating from around 1870. It looks like a small brick igloo. Ice houses or ice wells were constructed on large estates before the days of fridges and freezers. In winter people cut ice from lakes and ponds, then store it for preserving food.
The park has a café, te
nnis courts, a large children’s playground - for large children, small children, and young autistic men as well – it had one of the giant tyre swings Jack loves. Since they’re big enough to fit him, as are the ones looking like huge baskets, I don’t see a problem in letting him go on. Often, we have to wait, but once in another park, a group of girls got off the swing just to let him on. Always, though, people stare. Sometimes, they make fun. I’ve perfected my “don’t mess with us” look, involving clutching my car key in a fist.
Anyway – back to Oakwood Park. It also has open spaces to walk in, where you can still see some of the original field boundaries and it features an avenue of poplar trees, planted to mark the coronation of King George VI. It’s a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation. There’s a wildlife pond edged with aquatic plants, developed in 1980 from a lake originally used for sailing model boats. You can see damselflies, dragonflies, geese, and ducks. Now – a word about feeding. We shouldn’t give bread to ducks as it hasn’t got much nutritional value and encourages rats. You can give them bird food, or if you haven’t got that they’ll eat shredded green vegetables. Apparently, they also eat grass cuttings, but I don’t fancy filling my pockets with that.
There are entrances on Saxon Way, Prince George Avenue, Willow Walk, and Oakwood Park Road, all N14, and you can park there or in the surrounding streets.
Judith Field
Oakwood Park, Saxon Way, London N14 6QB
08/04/2021 03:11:11 PM
13. Greenhill Gardens
We’ve now visited one hundred and three parks. Some aren’t worth writing about, others are good to walk round if you happen to be in the area, and others have been worth making an effort to visit.
We try to bring a little bit of nature into the house (without damaging anything), but our little school nature table-style collection of cones and leaves needs new additions. We’ve been as far out as Watford and as close as the end of our Mill Hill street.
Greenhill Gardens is about middle-distance from our house. This attractive little park is another hidden gem. It’s right on the Great North Road between Whetstone and Barnet but I’d never noticed it, despite driving past it on more occasions than I can count. It’s another one I found by looking at a map. We visited the park in July when the weather was good, but despite the small size of the park, it wasn’t crowded. Although one side is bordered by back gardens, perhaps few people know it’s there.
Like many of the others we’ve visited, it used to be part of a much larger country estate, known as Pricklers (after a medieval family called Prittle). If you’ve ever wondered why that part of the Great North Road is called Pricklers Hill, now you know. Later, the estate became known as Greenhill. Most of the land was developed for housing as a commuter suburb in the early 20th century, and the park represents the small portion that survived. The Local Authority bought it in 1926 and opened it to the public.
The main feature is an ornamental lake, fringed by alder and willow trees, with a wooded island. There are wooded parts to walk in and also a grassed area with scattered mature trees – plenty of space for children to run around in. There’s somewhere to relax for people of all ages. There are plenty of benches to rest on and relax. The park is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and attracts a variety of water birds. and bats (although, again, we didn’t see any).
There is access from Pricklers Hill EN5 and Greenhill Park, EN5, and you can park there or in nearby streets.
Judith Field
Greenhill Gardens, Pricklers Hill, Great North Road, High Barnet EN5 1HE
01/04/2021 09:49:15 AM
12. Gladstone Park
This large park is In Dollis Hill, between Wembley and Hampstead, on a hill with views across London. It’s not an area I’m familiar with, but I spotted the park when looking at a map, trying to identify one Jack was talking about but didn’t know the name of. All he was able to tell me was that it’s near his primary school (he has an amazing memory). Gladstone park wasn’t it, but Jack didn’t mind. I’m glad we went there, it’s one of my favourites and it was much more enjoyable than the one he actually meant (I eventually identified it).
Gladstone Park evolved from the parkland of the Dollis Hill Estate and became a public park in 1901. It was named after the former Prime Minister Sir William Gladstone, who had spent many years staying in Hill House (contained in the park) as his weekend retreat. The low walls, all that remains of the house, are at the top of the hill. The par
k is large enough that it didn’t feel crowded.
It’s more interesting than some we’ve visited (and which I won’t be writing about) because it has a lot of different areas to explore. These include large areas of parkland of different sorts – not just a vast open space although it includes that. It has a walled garden, duck pond, tree-lined avenues and open ground, sports pitches, playgrounds, and an outdoor gym. There are sculptures, like this bird, which I managed to photograph during a split second when children weren’t clambering over it.
Among the tree lined avenues is the Gandhi Peace Grove.
Behind a locked, fenced enclosure is the Holocaust Memorial, created in 1968 by a local Jewish sculptor who had been a prisoner of war. It consists of four seated figures and one standing. It is inscribed ‘To the memory of Prisoners of War and Victims of Concentration Camps 1914-1945’.
It’s possible to park on the roads on all sides of the park and there’s a car park by the Dollis Hill Lane entrance. It’s a ten-minute walk from Dollis Hill station.
Judith Field
Gladstone Park, 52 Mulgrave Rd, London NW10 1BT
25/03/2021 06:05:40 PM
11. Sunny Hill Park
Sunny Hill Park, in Hendon, is one of Barnet’s so-called Premier Parks: ‘exemplar parks which are attractive, accessible, well maintained and offer a wide variety of facilities.’ It’s a large, hilly, mainly open space with a network of paths and plenty of benches. It’s also a local nature reserve with are areas managed with nature conservation in mind: wildflower meadows and an area of rough grassland and scrub where there are slow-worms and butterflies. The park is home to a weekly timed 5 Km parkrun.
The park opened in 1922, when the local authority bought Sunnyhill Fields, which had belonged to Church Farm. The fields had been used for growing hay, before the internal combustion engine took over from horses and hay was no longer an important crop. More land was added in 1929.
There are brilliant views from the higher points, just the sort of place to go to alleviate lockdown cabin fever. Once again, I found that looking into the distance, rather than at close range at a computer screen or other members of the household, gives a sense of liberation. We visited the park in May, but I find it as liberating today - just the thing with Pesach almost here. It reminds me of my Liverpool childhood, when you could walk for five minutes to the Mersey and look across to the hills of Wales, grey on the horizon.
Close to the park entrance on the Watford Way is a café serving lovely Israeli-style food – before Covid, I used to go there specially, to sit outside and have lunch with friends. At the moment the café is only serving takeaway food. There is also a playground, tennis and basketball courts and football pitches.
Near the playground is a peculiar structure made from stacked regular dodecahedrons (-hedra?), meant for climbing on by the looks of it, although as that’s not Jack’s thing (or mine) we didn’t try.
There is access from Church End, Sunny Hill, Watford Way, Great North Way, Sunny Gardens Road, Sunningfields Crescent and Church Terrace – all NW4. There is a small carpark at the end of the Watford Way (A41 Southbound) entrance – look out for it on the left as you drive along, the third on the left after Fiveways Corner.
Judith Field
Sunny Hill Park, Watford Way, NW4 4XA
