Park of the week

5. Pinner Memorial Park

As of last week, we’ve visited ninety-one parks and open spaces so there’s still lots for me to recommend. Pinner Memorial Park is one of Harrow’s Green Flag Parks – this Award recognises the best green and open spaces in the country. The park is close to the centre of Pinner and you can get there by bus or Tube. If you don’t fancy public transport, there are several car parks nearby – we used the one in Chapel Lane. There are also entrances in Marsh Road, West End Lane, and West End Avenue.

It’s on land that was part of the West House estate, where Lord Nelson's daughter Horatia lived. More land was acquired in 1949 after a public campaign for a memorial to those who died in both world wars and the park opened as Pinner Memorial Park in 1950. It’s not just people who are remembered – there is also the remains of a Victorian dog cemetery.
The remains of West House are still there, the upper floor is a gallery, and the lower is Daisy on the Park, a cafe serving lovely ice creams (I bought one for Jack) and all sorts of other dishes: people were ordering roast dinners, with vodka and tonic on the side.  As the same person taking our order and payment was also the person making the hot drinks, we had to wait in the queue for some time – but it gave me the chance to people-watch and wonder, yet again, why parents don’t teach their kids not to charge about without looking to see who else might be in the same space – especially now.

There are lots of paths so it’s not a place where you have to squelch through a quagmire to walk around - I may not write about them. It has bushes, mature trees including larch, weeping willow, blue cedar, magnolia and copper beech, open and shaded areas with a lot of different features: a green gym, bowling green (closed when we visited, and now), a lake with a fountain, ducks, and geese. It has a quiet, ornamental peace garden with rose beds, heathers, weeping ash and wisteria. 
There’s also a small aviary. Jack spends what feels like many hours showing me photos of budgies on his iPad, while I not only have to give them all names but remember which is which, so it was good to see some of them in real life (the photo shows Bilbo and Peppy).

Next to the café and aviary is the Heath Robinson Museum, closed at the time. This is another place I’d like to go back to on my own, to get a look at the contraptions and illustrations.

Judith Field

Pinner Memorial Park, West End Lane, Pinner HA5 1AE