Park of the week

188. Maygrove Peace Park

This park, in Kilburn, opened in the mid-nineteen seventies. It’s on land that, 200 years ago, belonged to Hall Oak Manor Farm.  Following the extension of the Midland Railway into St Pancras in the 1860s, the site became used as a railway siding. It has lawns, benches, shrubs, a children’s playground and a games pitch.

In April 1983, Camden Council agreed to designate Maygrove a Peace Park. The opening of the park on 9th August 1984 was timed to coincide with the 39th Anniversary of the date the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Nagasaki Day is on 9th August 1984. The Mayor of Nagasaki replied, “We hope your Peace Park will be remembered long as a symbol of Peace”, and a thousand white balloons were released into the air.

Following several Peace Festivals in the mid 1980s, the park fell into decline during the 1990s. However, from 2004 a group of local enthusiasts campaigned to refurbish the park, with redesigned landscaping and planting and improved play and sports facilities.

The park includes several peace symbols and features. There’s a cherry tree, which commemorates the one that continued to bloom after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

At the Maygrove Road entrance, this statue of a peace crane is inspired by the story of Sadako and her paper cranes. She was Japanese girl who survived the Hiroshima bombing but who was diagnosed with leukaemia nine years later. She set out to make 1000 paper cranes for good luck. Unfortunately, she died before completing the task.

Winding up through the park is the Peace Walk, with seven stones inscribed with messages of peace.

At the top of the park sits Antony Gormley’s Grade II listed welded bronze statue titled Untitled (listening). Underneath it is a glacial granite boulder which symbolises “part of the old deep history of the planet… sculpted by time”. 

The park was awarded Green Flag Status in July 2010. 

Judith Field

Maygrove Peace Park, Maygrove Road, London NW6 2DX