Park of the week

75. Tatem Park and Hollywood Gardens

These two areas make up a small park in Enfield, close to the Great Cambridge Road roundabout. Tatem Park was laid out on a former gravel pit that had once been part of the estate of Wyer Hall, Edmonton, which dated back to the fourteenth century. At the end of the nineteenth century the land, which was to become Tatem Park had housed kilns, which made the brick used to build Palmers Green. Excavations in the gravel pit in 1913 had unearthed skeletons and bones of Mastodon, Longirostris (a type of dolphin), Megatherium and Mammoth, from the last Ice Age.

The site was owned by two sisters, nieces of James Tatem (the last owner of Wyer Hall), who donated the site to the local authority in 1934 for use as a public park. It opened in 1937. The local paper reported that ‘A host of children…made straight for the playgrounds, the cycling track and the paddling and model yachting pools without waiting for the completion of the [opening] ceremony, and the speeches which followed were punctuated by their excited shouts and happy laughter.’
In 1945 an area of wasteland to the south was purchased and laid out as an ornamental garden, named after Councillor George Hollywood. The two sites were united in 1983 when further landscaping was carried out in the central area with an emphasis on wildlife conservation, with over a thousand trees planted, including ash, hawthorn and maple, together native grasses. There’s a pond designed to attract wildlife. The south-facing banks in the recreation area are left uncut. Wildflowers attract bees and provide breeding sites for insects, including many species of butterfly. The park is a Site of local importance for nature conservation.

The space that makes up the park has been protected by the Fields in Trust charity since 2013 as a Queen Elizabeth II Field. The charity marked the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, by protecting a legacy of parks and green spaces throughout the UK in perpetuity.

The park has basketball hoops, playing pitches, a children’s play area and toilets, but no café. We found space to park on a nearby street.

Tatem Park and Hollywood Gardens, 263 Hedge Lane, London, N13 5DE