11/02/2025 12:40:14 PM
181. Clayhall Park
I’ve decided to explore the open spaces of Redbridge, starting with Clayhall Park, in Ilford. If you don’t mind driving along the Benighted North Circular, it takes no longer to get to many of them from Mill Hill than it does to Watford or Islington, and you don’t have to put up with the traffic lights every 20 feet that you get along the Holloway Road.
Clayhall Park is one of Ilford's largest open spaces and has a bowling green, children's play area, outdoor gym, tennis courts, café and toilets. It was opened in 1934, on the Manor of Clay Hall. The Manor was first mentioned in 1203. The manor house, which must have once been a substantial building, was demolished in the mid-eighteenth century and replaced by a farmhouse. The park opened to the public in 1934 and the farmhouse, outbuildings and chapel were demolished in 1935.
The park is flat and is interspersed with sycamore, ash, oak, lime and horse chestnut trees. The grass is mostly short mown but, where it has been allowed to grow, wild plants grow including yarrow, cat's-ear and smooth hawk's-beard.
It has kept its Green Flag Award for 2024-25. There is car parking on a road leading into the park, but you’re meant to pay using an app I didn’t have, and I didn’t fancy standing there trying to sort it out with Jack striding away into the distance. I’m hoping there’s no charge on a Sunday and will be anxiously looking at the post for the next couple of weeks.
As we waited by the “big lying down swing” for four sweet little kids to get off, their father turned and said hello to me with a smile, and soon persuaded the children to finish their turn. I thanked him, told them they were kind, that their kids were lovely, and wished them a good day. I spend so much time on the lookout for nastiness, so this different sort of encounter made my afternoon.
Jack spotted another nearby park on the way back and I plan to visit it in the next few weeks. A406/A1400, here we come.
Judith Field
Clayhall Park, Longwood Gardens, Ilford, IG5 0EB
04/02/2025 12:40:11 PM
180. Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park
This park, in Southwark, is best known as the one surrounding the Imperial War Museum. I was visiting the museum but decided to look around the park as well. It’s attractive in its own right and is the largest open space in the northwest of the borough.
The park was formerly part of the site of the Bethlehem Royal Asylum, built there when it moved from Moorfields in 1815 on land formerly known as St George's Fields, a marshy area with ponds and streams draining into the Neckinger Brook (now covered over, eventually draining into the Thames at St Saviour’s Dock). The marshy character of the land was the reason that housing development had not taken place there.
The park was created when the hospital was moved to Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley in 1926 and the existing patients’ wings were demolished. The land and buildings were purchased by Viscount Rothermere, proprietor of the Daily Mail, who presented them to the London County Council for use as a public park for the “splendid struggling mothers of Southwark”, in memory of his mother, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth. It was opened in 1934. The Imperial War Museum was created in the remains of the hospital in the 1930s.
Apart from the distinctive museum building, the open, flat landscape is dominated by mature trees: old London planes, silver birch, hornbeam and oak. Wildflowers grow in the lawns. A small orchard has been planted with native and exotic fruits.
In the park is a section of the Berlin Wall and a Soviet War Memorial to the citizens and service personnel who died in WWII, unveiled in 1999.
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The Tibetan Garden of Contemplation and Peace, commissioned by The Tibet Foundation, was opened in 1999 by the Dalai Lama. The centre piece is a Mandala, a Tibetan Buddhist symbol connected with peace and the well-being of those who see it. The outer circle of the garden contains specially commissioned sculptures representing the four elements of earth, fire, water and air.
The park has picnic benches, a cafe, toilets, a sundial, playground, and a sports area with facilities for football, basketball, netball and tennis.
Judith Field
Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Lambeth Rd, London SE1 6HZ
28/01/2025 10:48:41 AM
179. Stonegrove Park
This park is in Edgware, close to Edgware and District Reform Synagogue (sometimes referred to as “Stonegrove”). Stonegrove (the road) is a continuation of the A5 Burnt Oak Broadway/Edgware High Street and was originally known as Watling Street. I remember the A5 as part of the London to Liverpool route before the M1 was opened and brought further into London. There were very few places to stop and eat, and even some of those kept you waiting for ages.
By the early nineteenth century houses had been built along Stonegrove and larger scale development in the area started during the 1920s. and the park was opened in May 1934. At that time, new houses in the adjacent road were selling for £1150. Today’s average is about £700,000.
The park is small and irregularly shaped, between the main road and residential streets. It has a circular boating pond, now drained and weed-filled, in the middle of a grassy area with various deciduous trees. On the southern side are small formal beds, tennis courts, a basketball court, a skateboard area and two playgrounds. There is a perimeter path with benches, these have cast-iron supports and armrests in the shape of lion heads, dating from the time the park was first opened. Next to the park is the rear of the gothic-style Day’s Alms-houses (built in 1828), with a grass terrace and evergreen planting. They were founded by Charles Day, who had made a fortune from manufacturing boot polish and felt he wanted to give thanks for his success.
An underground waterway, part of the Silkstream, runs under the park. Thames 21, a volunteer group working with communities to improve rivers and canals had plans to expose it, but these were shelved owing to lack of funding.
Judith Field
Stonegrove Park, Stonegrove, Edgware HA8 7UB
21/01/2025 06:11:01 PM
178. Meriden Park
I found this park by looking on a map for green spaces. It’s in north Watford and I couldn’t resist the call of the M1.
I can’t seem to find any historical information about the park, but the nearby Meriden estate was built in the nineteen sixties, so perhaps it dates from then. It was a good place for a walk – green, and with different sorts of landscapes: some open spaces, some trees. It gave the impression of being bigger than it probably is.
A lot of improvement work in the park took place about a year ago and there are now better paths and landscaping. In the spring there will be a new wildflower meadow and more benches for seating and picnics. More trees will be planted in the park, which will add to Watford’s overall tree canopy, which is 18.2%, already higher than the national average of 16%.
I wondered what that actually means. According to the Forestry Commission, they choose 350-600 points per ward, to view and see whether there is tree canopy in view. leading to a standard error of less than 2% (look it up if you’re still with me). If you want to do your own study, get an empty toilet paper or paper towel cardboard tube. Look up at the sky through the tube and estimate what percentage of the view is obstructed by tree branches and leaves.
There are also a car park, children’s playground, multi-use games area, table tennis tables and an outdoor gym. There isn’t a café or toilets. Meriden Community Centre is at the edge of the park.
Judith Field
Meriden Park, Meriden Way, Watford WD25 9ET
14/01/2025 12:21:10 PM
177. Bloomsbury Square
This garden square, near the British Museum, is one of the oldest in London. Some sources say that it’s the oldest.
The square was developed for the 4th Earl of Southampton in 1665 and formed part of the Bedford Estate. The garden was redesigned in the early 19th Century by Humphry Repton, the successor to Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. He coined the term 'landscape gardening’ to describe his approach of marrying the skills of the landscape painter with those of the practical gardener.
The literary critic and writer Isaac D'Israeli lived at number 6 from 1817 to 1829 and for part of that time his son, the future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli lived with him. He dropped the apostrophe from his surname at the age of 17, when he began working for a firm of solicitors in the City of London. In the 20th century most of the buildings came to be used as offices.
The southern end of the Square was redesigned in the mid-20th Century to a geometric pattern. Further alterations took place in 1971-3, when an underground car park was built under the square and the gardens were redesigned to their present layout. There’s an extensive central paved area, surrounded by tree-shaded lawns, with three large, slightly raised islands of grass with flowering shrubs and some perennials and bedding. There are lawns, a flower garden and a children’s playground but no café or toilets. The garden is Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
This engraved plaque in the central paving shows the first Bloomsbury square as it would have looked in diarist John Evelyn’s time, when it was called Southampton Square, with a quotation from his diary in 1665: "Dined at my Lord Treasurers the Earle of Southampton in Blomesbury, where he was building a noble square or piazza, a little towne."
Judith Field
Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2HL
08/01/2025 10:23:09 AM
176. Priestmead Recreation Ground
This is a small park in Harrow. It opened in 1936 when this previously rural area was rapidly built over in the interwar period. It is largely grass with some trees and areas of shrubbery. The entrance gates survive from the date of opening. The name of the park is taken from a house that existed to the south called Priestmead, which is shown on 19th Century maps as being in Kenton Lane, at that time surrounded by fields.
It's a tranquil setting for a walk or a run, the paths are well-maintained and there is a lot of open space. It has a children’s play area, outdoor gym, and a basketball practice goal. There are no café or toilets, also there’s no car park. We found space to park on a nearby street. It’s open from 7.30 am to dusk. I wouldn’t make a point of going there specially, but if you are in the area, it’s a good place for a peaceful walk.
I found this picture in the Harrow Observer, from 1953. There’s no explanation about why the photo was there, but the park doesn’t seem to have changed much in the meantime, except for the updating of the playground equipment. However, after editing to enhance it as much as I could, which wasn’t easy on a screenshot of a photocopy, it seems to show a disembodied pair of legs wearing cowboy boots, standing among the trees (in the middle, slightly to the left). That wasn’t there when we visited, I’d have noticed because I always spy out the land for troublemakers, gigglers and gawpers. One re-examination of the caption in newspaper, the legs seem to belong to one of the park keepers. I assume he had a top half as well, unless he only worked part time.
Judith Field
Priestmead Recreation Ground,76 Kingshill Drive, Harrow HA3 8QB.
08/01/2025 10:12:09 AM
175. Streatley Road Pocket Park
This pocket park is in Kilburn and was developed from a plain open space in 2009. It is landscaped with shrubs and trees, including a palm tree, and has a playground. There’s also a community garden and some decorative old-looking stones, about which I could find out nothing, I'm afraid. When we visited it was quiet, and it was good to be able to sit calmly and not to have to wait for the “big lying down swing.” It's so small that, on the map at the end, it doesn't even look like an open space.
I’ve written about pocket parks before and it’s worth clarifying what this term means. A pocket park is a small park accessible to the general public. Typically, a pocket park occupies one to three municipal lots and is smaller than 0.5 hectares (1 acre) in size. Many are smaller: the size of tennis court. They can be urban, suburban or rural, but they customarily appear in densely urbanized areas, where land is very expensive and space for the development of larger urban parks is limited. They are frequently created on small, irregular pieces of public or private land, such as in vacant building lots, in brownfield sites, beside railways, beneath utility lines, or in parking spots.
They can be both natural or more formal in character (or a blend of both) but they provide a green open space that also offers habitat opportunities and opportunities for people to connect with nature. The government Pocket Park funding scheme provided grants of £2m in England and more than 100 parks were created across 26 London boroughs. These ranged from community orchards to edible bus stops. You can’t actually eat the signs: they’re set up a group called The Edible Bus Stop who help communities create areas of nature around their bus stops, a sort of legal guerilla gardening (where people cultivate plants in public or private spaces without permission).
Another group with similar aims is Energy Garden, who set up this garden on Platform 3 at Finchley Central Underground Station.
It’s a haven for wildlife which also helps feed the local community – the green covered box on the left at the back is for donated vegetables from the garden, for people to take.
Judith Field
Streatley Road Pocket Park, 22 Streatley Road, London, NW6 7LR
Judith and Jack's Park of the Week
08/01/2025 10:12:09 AM
176. Priestmead Recreation Ground
This is a small park in Kenton. It opened in 1936, when this previously rural area was becoming rapidly built over in the interwar period. It is largely grass with some trees and areas of shrubbery. The entrance gates survive from the date of opening. The name of the park is taken from a house that existed to the south called Priestmead, which is shown on 19th Century maps as being in Kenton Lane, at that time surrounded by fields.
It's a tranquil setting for a walk or a run, the paths are well-maintained and there is a lot of open space. It has a children’s play area, outdoor gym, and a basketball practice goal. There isn’t a café or toilets, also there’s no car park. We found space to park on a nearby street. It’s open from 7.30 am to dusk. I wouldn’t make a point of going there specially, but if you are in the area, it’s a good place for a peaceful walk.
I found this picture in the Harrow Observer, from 1953, of the park at dusk. There’s no explanation about why the photo is in the paper, but the park doesn’t seem to have changed much in the meantime, except for the updating of the playground equipment. But, after editing to enhance it as much as I could, which wasn’t easy to do with a screenshot of a photocopy, it seems to show a disembodied pair of legs wearing cowboy boots, standing among the trees. That wasn’t there when we visited, I’d have noticed because I always spy out the land for troublemakers, gigglers and gawpers. One re-examination of the caption in newspaper, the legs seem to belong to one of the park keepers. I assume he had a top half as well, unless he only worked part time.
Judith Field
Priestmead Recreation Ground,76 Kingshill Drive, Harrow HA3 8QB.
17/12/2024 05:59:02 PM
174. Goodwood Recreation Ground
I found this park by looking at the Watford Borough Council website. It’s in north Watford but nowhere near Goodwood Racecourse (in Sussex), unfortunately for those who like to follow the geegees.
The park was opened in 2008, before when it had been an open field. This field, and the woodland that forms part of the park, had been part of the Earl of Essex’s Cassiobury Estate. It now contains open areas of grassland planted with hundreds of daffodils, picnic area, football pitch, outdoor gym and the woodland. It has a play area, which children from two local primary schools had a hand in designing. Carved wooden benches represent some of the wildlife found in the park.
Dog walking is allowed but there’s also a dog-free area and there’s lots of space to walk in, with or without a dog.
As the park was awarded the Green Flag Award again in 2024, the Council need to update their sign on the gate. I imagine, though, that there’d be complaints about the needless expense of doing so. There are no toilets or café. There isn’t a car park, but we found space to park on a nearby street.
Judith Field
Goodwood Recreation Ground, Minerva Drive, Watford WD24 5LD
10/12/2024 06:11:08 PM
173. Wood Farm Nature Reserve
This nature reserve is in Stanmore, to the north of Stanmore Country Park and close to my favourite swimming pool at the Aspire Leisure Centre with its bath-temperature water and lovely disabled people. The nature reserve is a mixture of rough grassland and scrub with a path running through it, and great views over London. It’s also a haven for birds; kestrel, sparrowhawk, buzzard and red kite all hunt over it.
Once a farm, and then a landfill site, the area was previously inaccessible to the public. It was handed over to the council in 2015, with a small parcel of land being sold off for redevelopment into housing. The proceeds of this went towards funding the transformation of the land into the green space it is today. The Old Dairy on Wood Lane had been used for storing milk for distribution and has been converted to a visitor centre. The nature reserve is now managed by a volunteer warden supported by a management committee comprising council officers, elected councillors and volunteers. It’s open all year round.
The London Viewpoint is a short distance along the path that starts from the car park, and a sign points out what to look for. We made out the tops of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers and the Shard, BT Tower, the London Eye. Closer, Wembley Stadium dominates, but on a really clear day it’s said that you can see the control tower at Heathrow. The line of hills on the far horizon are the North Downs, which mark the southern border of the M25 — so on this high hill not far from the northern side of the M25 you can see across the whole of London.
There’s also a Pond to the right of that path. In summer, dragonflies and damselflies flit over the pond or rest on the waterside plants. In late summer, large numbers of swallows and house martins swoop over the pond to drink as they mass in preparation for their migration south.
When we went, earlier this year, the place was almost empty except for a few dog walkers. Somewhere along the path one of my hearing aids fell off but I didn’t notice till too late. If you go along and find it, I don’t want it back, thanks all the same.
Judith Field
Wood Farm Nature Reserve, 17 Wood Lane, Stanmore, HA7 4LJ
