Park of the week

64. Lyttelton Playing Fields

These fields, in Hampstead Garden Suburb, mark the addition to the original part of the Suburb finished in the nineteen twenties, of the section added in the nineteen thirties. Lyttelton Playing Fields were part of the provision of recreational and green areas in the original design of the Suburb and it’s the largest open space there. It’s also one of Barnet’s Premier Parks and a site of local importance for nature conservation. The Playing Fields and Northway Gardens (see number 32) make up a green corridor running behind the shops and flats along the A1, between Norrice Lea and Henley’s Corner.

Most of the site is a large open, grassed area surrounded by boundaries of hedge and trees, and the greenery in the gardens that back onto the space. There’s a lot of room to walk, and plenty of benches. It has children’s playgrounds, tennis courts, basketball and football courts, cricket squares and a private bowls club. It has a pavilion, which is home to a nursery. There are toilets, and a kosher (I suppose it is) café where we bought Israeli ice creams. Eating an ‘Eskimo’ set off a big nostalgia surge in me.

Mutton Brook (which joins Dollis Brook and, eventually, the River Brent) runs along the north of the field through the remains of an ancient woodland with old oak trees, horse chestnut, hornbeam and field maple. This used to be known as Watery Wood and the oak trees in front of the tennis courts are part of it. There are also the remains of a nine-hundred-year-old hedgerow to the south and a children’s Millennium Wood in the northwest corner. There’s a small amphitheatre next to the playground, where am dram productions are staged.

There’s no car park but we found space on the road. Access is from Kingsley Way, Lyttelton Road, Norrice Lea and Linden Lea, N2.

This photo was taken when we visited, in 2020. I’m writing this on a muggy, cloudy Mill Hill morning. If Jack would allow us to visit parks more than once and we went back now, I imagine all that’s green would now be yellow, as far as the eye could see. I hope we get some proper rain soon.

Judith Field

Lyttelton Playing Fields, Kingsley Way, London, N2 0EE