Park of the week

45. Chestnuts Park

This park is in Tottenham.  I promise to write about a different area next time. My excuse is that we can get to Haringey by turning left at the end of our road – as I’ve mentioned before, Jack reacts badly to our turning right. I would rather endure driving on part of the Benighted North Circular than spend an entire journey with “I told you to turn left” blasting from behind me.

Originally the land that’s now Chestnuts Park was used to grow watercress – a crop which thrives in wet conditions. The Stonebridge Brook, which used to run through the park is now housed in an underground culvert. The brook rises in Crouch End and eventually joins the River Lea by Markfield Park (see Park of the Week 28), which joins the Thames. 

In 1850, Chestnuts House was built on the land. In 1898 the local authority bought the house and land, and it was laid out as Chestnuts Recreation Ground to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The park opened to the public in November 1900. The house was at first used as a public reading room and museum, later becoming a health clinic. It was demolished in the nineteen eighties to make room for the Chestnuts Community Centre.

Most of the park is grass. There are a lot of mature trees: London plane, common lime, cherry, silver birch. There’s also a community willow garden and an orchard of fruit trees. People from the local community have planted bulbs and there are flower beds. The park was first awarded the Green Flag Award in 2008 and has kept it ever since. It’s a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation because it’s a sizeable park with plenty of mature trees and areas of long grass, in a part of Haringey with little accessible natural greenspace. It is also a Field In Trust. This means it is protected in perpetuity (at least that’s the idea) as a site for public recreation, as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge scheme. It has a café, toilet, football and basketball pitches, tennis court, zip wire, outdoor gym, and a playground.

Judith Field

Chestnuts Park, St Ann's Rd, London N15 3AQ