Park of the week

157. Cricklewood Millennium Green

This pocket park built on former railway sidings. Created at the turn of the millennium in 2002, it’s one of 245 Millennium Greens created as part of a national scheme that ran in 1999 where the National Lottery gave parkland to 245 local communities in England, entrusting them with its management under the condition that the land should always be kept as a green space with no plans to build on it. This is one of eight built in London. We’d already visited Southgate Millenium Green (see no. 108). It received a grant of £5000 for improvement in 2021.

The site is sculpted with hills and hollows to wander around. One of the hills gives a good view of the mainline railway passing through Cricklewood and the Thameslink depot. There are paths running around the edges. A number of timber sculptures are also dotted in the park, created by the local artist Alistair Lambert. These look to be railway-inspired. 

The park may get larger soon, as the waste depot next to it is to be demolished and flats built on the site.   Part of the planning agreement includes giving some of the site to the Millennium Green as public open space.

A community trust was set up to look after the place and it's maintained by volunteers, who have planted trees on the site, mostly native ones such as field maple and hazel, creating a mixture of habitats which are home to butterflies and moths. There is a labelled nature trail. It's the sole nearby green space for the housing estate across the road, built on the site of the Handley Page aircraft factory that closed in 1964.

Judith Field

Cricklewood Millennium Green, 23 Claremont Road, London NW2 1BP