Judith and Jack's Park of the Week
30/04/2024 10:46:54 AM
143. Ashley Lane Nature Reserve
This lane, running between Mill Hill and Hendon, connects the public roads Oakhampton Road and Ashley Lane. It’s a peaceful green sanctuary, running between Hendon Golf Course and Hendon Cemetery.
We first walked along it during the first lockdown, and it’s just about wide enough to avoid other people as we had to during that difficult time, with its unfounded rumours that They were going to close parks. That didn’t happen, although park benches were spread with plastic netting to stop people spending too long there. There are no benches along the lane in any case.
It's a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II. The lane is first mentioned by name in 1594 but it appears to have been part of an important medieval road. It’s said that Cardinal Wolsey travelled along it on his final journey to York in 1530.
The lane still has its ancient hedgerows, which have developed into narrow belts of woodland. The main trees are oak and ash, with some wild service-trees. The plants at the bottom of the hedge include bluebells, ramsons (wild garlic) and dog’s mercury, which are ancient woodland indicators. A small unnamed stream, a tributary of Dollis Brook, crosses the lane mid-way.
Some people have wondered whether it can be considered a nature reserve or just a bridle path. If the latter, I wouldn’t want to to ride a horse down it and out at the lower end, which opens onto the Great North Way.
Judith Field
Ashley Lane Nature Reserve, Oakhampton Road, London, NW7 1DU
24/04/2024 11:06:23 AM
142. Hartington Park
This is in a very residential area of north Tottenham. We visited because we were in the area, and I was glad that we did because it had plenty of green open space to walk around in with benches to sit and relax on. I found it well-maintained, which isn’t always the case when we visit places that I know nothing about. It has a newly installed outside gym, children’s play area and a basketball/mini football area.
The park is in Harringay, which (confusingly to me) is in the London Borough of Haringey, created in the nineteen sixties from a merger between Hornsey, Wood Green and Tottenham. Nobody seems to know why the 'one r, e instead of a' spelling of the name was chosen but apparently at the time local school children were taught that the new borough's name should be pronounced with the same ending as Finchley, Hackney and Hornsey. I’m afraid that, on the few occasions I’ve had to say the name, I don’t. But then, I'm a tourist.
I saw this road sign, at the southern end of the park.
This refers to a pedestrianised fly-tipped passageway, running west to east providing rear access to the houses on either side. It covers a lost 15th Century river, originally called Garbell Ditch, later Carbuncle Ditch, which was created to alleviate flooding by the River Moselle, and the Ditch is a continuation of the Moselle. The name Moselle comes from ‘Mosse-Hill’ (Muswell Hill), the location of one of its sources.
I can’t find an explanation for the origins of the name Carbuncle, but since a carbuncle is caused by bacterial infection, perhaps the ditch was associated with disease, especially as around this period the population of the area grew, and the once pure Moselle became heavily polluted.
Judith Field
Hartington Park, 1 Stirling Road, London N17 9UN
16/04/2024 09:01:46 PM
141. Inigo Jones Garden
This garden, in Covent Garden, is the churchyard of St Pauls Church, also known as the Actors’ Church, because of its long association with the theatre community. It’s named after Inigo Jones, the architect of the church, as part of his instructions to create a piazza surrounded by four streets, mansions and a church. Chiselled into a column of the church is an inscription highlighting the spot where the first Punch and Judy show was first performed, and witnessed by Samuel Pepys, in 1662. The church is a Grade I listed building.
The garden is enclosed by surrounding buildings, one being the church. The space is paved, with two raised grass areas on either side of a central path, with trees. There are lines of benches backing onto the grass areas, each with a dedication to a theatre personality.
The burial ground was consecrated in 1638, but in 1853 it was closed to burials, and in 1855 the tombstones were removed or laid flat. There are memorial plaques to famous actors in the garden and inside the church, including Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Gracie Fields, Vivien Leigh, Ivor Novello, Barbara Windsor, Diana Rigg, and the My Fair Lady lyricist, Alan Jay Lerner.
I noticed this small sign in front of a tree in the garden.
The Queen’s Green Canopy was a UK-wide planting initiative to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. People were invited to “plant a tree for the jubilee”, to create a legacy in honour of the Queen’s leadership of the nation. Over three million trees were planted across the UK.
I also noticed this intriguing plaque, on the railings looking over an “entry” (as we say in Liverpool), an alley or gap between two tall buildings.
A lightwell is an external space that allows light and air to reach what would be a dark or unventilated area. The buildings must have been built on what was originally the burial ground. I was very taken with the idea of a light well, before I looked the term up, and pictured a bucket being drawn up, filled with light. Perhaps I’ll put it into a story, one day.
Judith Field
Inigo Jones Garden, St Pauls Church, Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ED
09/04/2024 05:48:23 PM
140. St George's Gardens
St George's Gardens is a public park in Bloomsbury. All of its entrances are down quiet side streets so isn’t somewhere you would necessarily stumble upon. In fact, I must’ve passed it many times as a student in the seventies, but even though it was next to my London Uni college in Brunswick Square, I never noticed it.
The Gardens were once the burial ground for two nearby churches – the Nicholas Hawksmoor church, St George’s Bloomsbury, and the church of St George the Martyr in Queen’s Square, now known as St George’s Holborn. The land was bought in 1713 and the burial ground opened in 1714.
This was one of the first burial grounds away from a church. London was growing rapidly, and churchyards were overflowing. Like nearly all inner-city burial grounds, the sheer number of bodies meant that the graveyard had to be closed in 1855. It was turned into a public park in 1884, as part of the movement led by activists such as Octavia Hill, who went on to co-found the National Trust, to create ‘open air sitting rooms’ for the people of London.
The Gardens were Grade 2 listed in 1987. In 1997, after becoming very run down, the Gardens were awarded Lottery funding for renovation, and reopened in 2001. Although open as a park to visit, the Gardens remain consecrated ground.
Paths wind through, with little corners to explore. There are also lawn areas with many surviving graves and monuments, such as grave of Anna Gibson (1659-1727). Before marrying her surname had been Cromwell. She was the sixth daughter of Richard Cromwell and granddaughter to Oliver Cromwell, both Lord Protectors of England.
This terracotta statue depicts Euterpe, one of the nine muses in Ancient Greek mythology, goddesses of music. It once sat, with statues of the eight others, on the front of the Apollo Inn on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Torrington Place. When the Inn was demolished in 1961 for an extension of Heal’s department store, the owner of the shop, Anthony Heal, presented the statue to the Borough and it was placed in the garden.
There are entrances on Handel Street, Heathcote Street and Sidmouth Street, WC1.
Judith Field
St. George's Gardens, Wakefield Street, London WC1H 8HZ
02/04/2024 05:56:12 PM
139. Byron Park
Byron Park, also known as Byron Recreation Ground, is in Wealdstone. It’s named after Lord Byron, who attended Harrow School.
The park was probably laid out at around in 1902 the same time as the adjoining Wealdstone Cemetery, as they have similarly built entrance gates, and gatehouse at the entrance to the park was originally the Cemetery Superintendent's residence.
The park is something of an urban oasis, with a lot of open space but also shady trees, plenty of benches, and picnic tables. It’s pretty flat, so walking around isn’t a problem for those who find hills or slopes difficult. It also has Basketball hoops, tennis courts, a bowling green, grass playing pitch, an outdoor gym, playground and a skateboard area. It has tarmac paths around its edge and winding through, with trees, shrubberies, and formal beds near the entrance. A line of Lombardy poplars marks the eastern boundary of the park along the iron railings adjoining the cemetery.
The park also hosts various community events throughout the year, ranging from concerts and festivals to fitness classes and educational workshops and is also the site of the Harrow fireworks display in November.
There’s parking at nearby Harrow Leisure Centre, also next to the park, or on the surrounding streets. There are entrances on Peel Road, Belmont Road and Christchurch Avenue, Wealdstone.
Judith Field
Byron Park, Peel Road, Wealdstone HA3 7QX
26/03/2024 12:13:49 PM
138. Victoria Park - Finchley
This park is a short walk from FRS. You’ve probably driven past it more times than you can count, and even gone in for a walk. It’s one of Barnet’s Premier Parks and won the Green Flag award for 2009-10.
Victoria Park and I go back to the mid-sixties, when my aunt and uncle moved into a house with a garden with a big tree with squirrels, which we didn’t seem to have in Liverpool. Better still, the garden backed onto the park and had a kid-size gap in the railings that led to a gardener’s hut, and from there to the park itself. We spent happy times on the putting green and in the playground. Years later, I took a walk in the park to try to ease the pain of first love. By the tennis courts I sat down and wept.
In 1988 my daughter and I moved to a house in Long Lane (and joined FRS), just down the road from one of the park entrances. More memories, happy (trying to fly a kite) and silly (when I decided it’d be a good idea to get myself some roller skates and stagger around the playground in them).
The screen has gone all misty…time to move onto some less personal history of the park. It was Finchley’s first public park and opened in 1902, although it had been intended to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Much of the park was originally part of Colby’s Farm, where Charles Dickens wrote part of Martin Chuzzlewit. So, I’m not the only person who comes to Finchley (FRS in my case) to write.
During the winter of 2021-22 the Association of Jewish Refugees planted trees around the UK to mark its 80th anniversary, to thank all the British people who helped Jewish refugees find safety in Britain from Nazi Europe, and to celebrate the remarkable contribution that the Jewish refugees have made to every walk of British life. A Sea Buckthorn tree was planted in Victoria Park.
The park is mainly open grassland with specimen trees, shrubs. I noticed these two trees that appear to have grown wrapped around each other.
There are lots of benches for sitting (and crying if you must). There are two playgrounds, tennis courts, outdoor gym and a bowling club, and a cafe and toilets.
There are entrances on Ballards Lane, Long Lane, Seymour Road and Etchingham Park Road, N3.
Judith Field
Victoria Park, Ballards Lane, London N3 2PH
18/03/2024 08:36:53 PM
137. Canonbury Square Gardens
This garden square is, in fact, two small parks in North Islington surrounded by a square of Georgian houses that were laid out just under two hundred years ago.
The land was owned by the Marquess of Northampton, who leased it to a developer in 1805. Before building finished, plans for a quiet square were interrupted by the construction of what is now Canonbury Road, which runs through the middle of the square. The Marquess opened the gardens in 1884 and donated them to Islington Council in 1888 ‘for the enjoyment of the public’. The original railings were removed during World War II, and an air raid shelter may also have been dug in the gardens, as a tender to dig one was issued. The railings were replaced with reproduction versions when the garden was redesigned in the nineteen fifties, after which the Evening Standard described it as London’s most beautiful square.
Today, the two gardens have different appearances. The smaller western garden is dominated by old plane trees, paving, and raised beds running around the edge, where there are benches. It has a shady feel it. There was further refurbishment in 2006, funded by the Loire Valley Wines Legacy Gardens, including a small vineyard and rose bed in the west garden reflecting the planting of the vineyards in the Loire Valley.
The larger eastern garden is more open and ornamental, laid out with two large lawns split by a central path and surrounded by a bench-filled walkway. There are plane, lime, magnolia, and horse chestnut trees, with bedding around the edges. The central avenue was restored in 2019 and a free-standing stone urn replaced with a globe sculpture, surrounded by bedding plants.
Former residents include literary figures George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, and Vanessa Bell.
Judith Field
Canonbury Square, London N1 2AW
12/03/2024 06:07:51 PM
136. Montesole Playing Fields
This open space, a nature conservation area, is in Pinner. There’s a lot of open space for walking, basketball hoops, a football pitch, playground, skateboard area, tennis courts and an outdoor gym. It’s home to Pinner Cricket Club.
The park is on land acquired by the local Council for recreational use in 1935 and is named after E B Montesole, a Councillor and resident of Pinner. He was dedicated to preserving the open spaces of the area and helped achieve their legal protection in the nineteen thirties when the land as under threat from housing development.
At the top of the site, just north of the playing field, are an unmowed area, and a wooded area known as Dingle's Wood that has a number of mature oak trees that contains a section of the ancient Grim's Dyke earthworks. These may have marked an Anglo-Saxon, or even Iron Age, boundary. The earliest document mentioning the name Grim’s Dyke dates from AD 1535. Grim is the Saxon word for devil or goblin and it was given to various linear earthworks similar to the one in Harrow. It’s likely that the earthworks name was given during the Saxon times of the Fifth Century.
The tree in this picture is decorated with flowers and the Albanian flag, but I don’t know why. We visited in October – perhaps it marks a special day, or someone had a party. Does anyone have ideas?
There are entrances on James Bedford Close, Jubilee Close, Pinner Hill Road and Uxbridge Road. There’s a car park at the Pinner Hill Road entrance.
Montesole Recreation Ground, Uxbridge Road, Pinner, HA5 3RX
05/03/2024 08:30:47 PM
135. Tower Gardens Park
This hidden gem, with its entrance between two houses, is in the centre of the Tower Gardens estate, in north Tottenham. The land had been farmland until 1901 when the London County Council purchased it. The estate was built between 1904 and 1928 and it was one of the first municipal cottage estates in the world. Originally known as the White Hart Lane estate and it’s now a conservation area. It was built using powers granted to local authorities by the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1900. Jewish philanthropist and banker Sir Samuel Montagu, Liberal MP for Whitechapel from 1885 to 1900, donated £10,000 towards it. He stipulated that his grant support the rehousing of the working-class residents of Whitechapel ‘without distinction of race or creed’, intending by that to meet the housing needs of the Jewish residents of his former constituency. The Tower Gardens in the name of the estate and the park comes from this Tower Hamlets connection.
The park originally had a formal design, but over the years the ground has been re-landscaped into undulations with informal shrub planting and a series of circular raised beds. The ornamental iron gates and brick columns topped by stone spheres are still there, and the London plane and lime trees around the edges could date from the original planting. There are also shrubberies around the edges, which provide nest sites and food for birds. On the northern edge is a bank covered in grassland and tall plants. There are other grassed areas, benches, and a playground. There are no café or toilets. Dogs are allowed in.
There’s an active Friends group, who recently met to plant hedges. The hope is that the mix of field maple, hazel, crab apple, dogwood and spindle will bring flowers, foliage and plenty of wildlife to the park.
While we were there, the park was peaceful and quiet. We found space to park on a nearby street.
Judith Field
Tower Gardens Park, 137 Tower Gardens Road, London N17 7PE
27/02/2024 08:56:16 PM
134. Ducketts Common
Ducketts Common is a park in Turnpike Lane, on Green Lanes, N15. This was an ancient route and is so-called because of the fields that lined it, until the railway brought housing development to the area. The area on the opposite side of Green Lanes is known as Green Gate Common. This has winding paths, shrubs, and trees. It is rumoured that air raid shelters exist below it, connected to the tube line and station. What’s more likely, given that the tube station is so close, is that these were actually ‘trench shelters’. These were very basic, situated in parks, and designed for people who were caught out when an air-raid happened.
The name ‘Ducketts’ comes from Laurence Duket, a goldsmith who owned 160 acres of farmland in the thirteenth century. The farmland had been part of Tottenham manor. The local authority converted the common into a recreation ground in 1900. This involved planting 140 trees, and a further thirty trees in 1912. Many of the original plane and lime trees survive.
Ducketts Common is a welcome green space in a built-up area. It has wildflower meadows, established in 2013. The meadows were planted by volunteers from Christ Church London and local residents, taking ten thousand volunteer hours to complete. One meadow is cut for hay cut in mid-August and a second towards the end of the year. Many insects such as various bumble bees, butterflies and wild solitary bees are attracted by the nectar rich wildflowers. It won the Green Flag Award in 2014 and has kept it ever since. It has a basketball court, multi-use games area, outdoor gym, table tennis tables, picnic area and open space. There’s a café but no toilets. We parked on a nearby street.
Judith Field
Ducketts Common, Green Lanes, London N15 3DX
