Park of the week

50. Whitings Hill Open Space and Whitings Wood 

This large open space is in Chipping Barnet. It’s dominated by a rounded, grassy hill, which gives a good view over the surrounding area. The rest of the habitat consists of clumps of trees, and there are bramble patches. Part of Jack’s and my park visiting ritual is that, if we see blackberries growing, we always eat one each. Here, we found enough to fill a handkerchief to take home.

It was quiet when we visited – we only saw about two other people there. There’d be plenty of room for dog walking and general running around (by people of any age who feel up to it). A small stream, a tributary of Dollis Brook (see Park of the Week 49), flows through the site. There are no snakes living in the stream, but I thought this branch looked like one. 

Whitings Hill had previously been scruffy pastureland until Barnet Council turned it into a public open space in 1996 and invited local groups to plant trees there. The Barnet Society created two plantations on the south-west side of the hill, to mark the Society’s fiftieth anniversary. They made sure that all the trees in the plantations were native species. Whitings Hill School also planted trees on the north-west side.

Whitings Wood is next to the open space and was also created in 1996. It’s part of the Watling Chase Community Forest project. Community Forests are not continuous areas of closely grown trees but are instead meant to be ‘a rich mosaic of landscape, within which land uses include farmland, woodland, villages, leisure enterprises, nature areas and public open space’. Watling Chase covers an area in Hertfordshire and the northern edge of London, including in Barnet and Harrow. Local people engaged in the woodland creation from the outset. Whitings Wood contains a mixture of native broadleaf trees and woody shrubs. Blackthorn hedgerows are spreading out and natural regeneration is developing.

There’s access from Greenland Road, Shelford Road, Quinta Drive, Brett Road and Hackforth Close, all in Barnet. There’s space to park on the surrounding streets.

Judith Field

Whitings Hill Open Space and Whitings Wood, 9 Greenland Rd, Barnet EN5 3BL