Park of the week

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