Park of the week

46. Copthall Railway Walk & Copthall Old Common

This nature reserve starts at a bridge under Sanders Lane NW7, near Bittacy Hill, and finishes at Page Street. However, there is an entrance five minutes’ walk away from my house. You turn left (so no Jack complaints) at the end of my road (Salcombe Gardens), cross over Devonshire Road NW7 so that you’re on the same side of the road as Canada Villa Youth Centre, turn left and walk over the bridge. At the end of the railings on the bridge is a set of steps leading under the bridge. This is shown as a red pin on the map.

There, you come to a grassy footpath, the Copthall Railway Walk, following the route of the old railway line from Mill Hill East to Edgware. This line was meant to be incorporated into the London Underground system in the nineteen thirties, but it was only partly completed when war broke out. Afterwards, plans to make the rest of the line part of the tube were scrapped. Here and there you can see crumbling concrete posts which would have carried the cables for the railway if the electrification of this stretch had taken place.

Apparently, the existing stretch from Finchley Central to Mill Hill East was only completed because of the latter’s closeness to an Army barracks. That site has been recently redeveloped, but I do remember visiting the Garrison Nursery to get supplies of baby formula, over twenty years ago.

The nature reserve runs for just under a mile of the old line. Copthall Old Common is to one side, here the path broadens, then narrows again to follow a green lane. The habitats on the site include a mixture of re-grown woodland, scrub, and rough grassland as well as a small pond on the common, where there are older oak trees. Among the hedges grow oak, sycamore and silver birch trees and there are areas of bluebells. The site is also home to several species of birds and invertebrates, including slow worms and glow-worms, a scarce and declining species (we didn’t notice any). 

There are no toilets, café, or playground with “lying down swings”. But you can’t have it all.

Judith Field

Copthall Railway Walk and Copthall Old Common, Off Pursley Road, London NW7