Park of the week

59. Woodcock Park 

This park is in Harrow. We visited it after I’d given up trying to find Northwick Park, which is said to exist nearby as an open space and not just a hospital. Busy, multi-lane roads made it impossible to slow down and look, and the satnav had given up doing more than repeating “proceed to the route”.

Woodcock Park is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and received a Gold award in London in Bloom in 2021. It was once part of the grounds of Kenton Grange, built in 1803. The local authority bought the house and the grounds in 1952, turned the house into an elderly care home (now St Luke’s Hospice) and opened the remaining land to the public. As well as being bordered by the hospice, the park is bordered by Kenton United Synagogue, Kulanu Jewish Sport and Community Centre, and two schools.

The park is divided into two by the Wealdstone Brook, a tributary of the River Brent. The area north of the brook has wildflowers, shrubs and many mature native and non-native trees including some rare specimens, for example an ancient mulberry. The area to the south is more open with sports and play facilities, grass, and scattered trees. 

The park has tennis courts, an outdoor gym, a children's playground, skateboard area, basketball hoops, bowling club, picnic tables and a small car park. There are plenty of places to sit. The Friends of Woodcock park are working towards bringing café facilities to the park. There are no toilets.

Next to a path leading to the park is a wall which apparently used to be repeatedly daubed with graffiti and painted over in patches. The Friends approached St Gregory’s Catholic Science College, one of the schools bordering the park, asking them to submit designs for a mural on the theme of the park to cover the wall. The school got funding and worked with a mural company to produce the mural. I’m not keen on graffiti, despite one of my English degree modules considering it to be creative, so I was pleased that something had been done about it here. 

Judith Field

Woodcock Park, Kenton Road / Woodgrange Avenue / Woodcock Hill / Shaftesbury Avenue, HA3 0YB