Park of the week

183. Halliwick Recreation Ground

This is a small park in Muswell Hill. It was probably purchased with the nearby allotments in 1927. It contains has grassed open space, a tennis court, table tennis playground and two playgrounds. There are plans to renovate the playground for use by those up to age 14, including those with special needs. I hope that it will include a basket swing.

The park has undergone other improvements in recent years, including landforms (hills in this case) created from excavated materials, gravel footpaths, planting native and ornamental trees. There are also gabion baskets with seating on top. This was a new term to me. A gabion is a wire basket looking like something we’d use to take the cat to the vet, which can be filled with stones and used for things like erosion control and landscaping. I’ve seen them before and wondered what they were.

A new wetland area with a viewing platform was opened in the relandscaped park in 2024. This is part of a sustainable urban drainage scheme designed to capture and store surface water runoff from the park and surrounding streets. This system diverts rainwater away from overburdened sewers and directs it into a newly constructed basin, significantly reducing the risk of downstream flooding. Specialist plants that reduce pollution have also been installed in the new wetlands to help treat as rainwater. It has creating new habitats for wildlife.

I wondered why there were several nearby places named Halliwick. There’s a block of flats, a road and the park. There was Halliwick Hospital, opened in 1958 as a “neurosis unit”, part of Friern Hospital. It eventually it became a unit for newly admitted patients and those convalescing from Friern Hospital. This was formerly the Colney Hatch Asylum, built in 1851 in the style of an Italian monastery, with its own gasworks, shoe¬makers, brewery, bakery and farm Both were closed in 1993 and later demolished. 

I’d thought these places were named after the hospital, but in fact all were/are named after the Manor of Halliwick, one of two historic manors in the parish of Friern Barnet. The Halliwick manor house was built around 1602 and located on the corner between Colney Hatch Lane and Woodhouse Road. The other manor was Friern Barnet Manor, whose manor house was the predecessor of the house in Friary Park.

There isn’t a café or toilets. We parked on a nearby street.

Judith Field

Halliwick Recreation Ground, 66 George Crescent, London N10 1AN