Park of the week

72. Silver Jubilee Park

We found this park, in Kingsbury, by driving past it on the way back from another one. It was re-named for the Jubilee of King George V in 1935. Before this it was known as Townsend Lane Open Space. It seems that the local authority had wanted to call it King George V Park but for some reason permission had been refused. “Jubilee Park” was considered not to be specific enough as people might think it was named for Queen Victoria. At that time there was little housing development apart from the village at Kingsbury Green, but the area expanded rapidly between the two World Wars. There had been an anti-aircraft gun site in the park during the Second World War and some of the site was used for temporary housing afterwards. 

The park has some of its earlier trees, including oak and poplar, mainly on the slopes and round the edge. At the northern end are shrub beds and conifers. The rest of the park is mainly playing fields and it provides a lot of green space in a built-up area. The Silver Jubilee Park Charitable Foundation works to promote community participation in healthy recreation.
The east side of the park is next to West Hendon Playing Fields. These fields are in Barnet (we’ve visited here, but I don’t have much to say about them), and the boundary between Brent and Barnet runs between the two spaces. Silver Jubilee park has a playground, outdoor gym, but no café or toilets. It contains Silver Jubilee park football stadium, home of Hendon FC and Edgware & Kingsbury FC.

There are good views of the Welsh Harp Reservoir (another one of my favourite visits) from the top of the park, and also of central London, for example the BT Tower and The Shard. You can also see the top of the nearby the Hindu temple Shree Swaminarayan Mandeer. This last word, translated form Sanskrit, means “where the mind becomes still.” I like that concept and would love to find such a place.

There’s no car park, but we found space to park on the road.

Judith Field

Silver Jubilee Park, Northgate Drive, London, NW9 7RD