Park of the week

15. East Finchley Cemetery

This week I’m writing about a different sort of place. First, it’s the exception to Jack’s rule that we can only go to a park once. Second, it isn’t a park. East Finchley Cemetery (which Jack calls “the fishpond”) is part of our Shabbat afternoon ritual. Every week since the start of lockdown, we have visited it to feed the goldfish in the pond. It means we must have been there over fifty times, even once when the pond was frozen and the food we dropped in sat on top of the ice (I hoped it might still be there when the ice melted).

It’s a beautiful and uncrowded place to walk, with Gothic-style chapels and gate lodges and decorative Edwardian mausoleums, a number of which are listed buildings. Some of the graves date from the mid-nineteenth century and a few of the names on the memorials have given me ideas for characters in stories. Some famous burials include conductor Leopold Stokowski, cartoonist Heath Robinson (see also post number 5 – Pinner Memorial Park), PC Keith Blakelock (murdered in the Tottenham riot) and music hall singer Harry Champion (“Boiled Beef and Carrots”, “I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am“, “Any Old Iron”). There is a plot of military graves from the first and second World Wars.

Despite being close to the benighted North Circular Road there’s no traffic noise. There is a lot of open space, woodland, trees and shrubbery and grassland with naturalised bulbs. It has won a Green Flag Award and was voted cemetery of the year in 2007.  It’s a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation and we’ve seen muntjac deer, a range of woodland birds and, once, a group of people riding penny farthing bikes. 

Here’s a map showing where the fishpond is (the red arrow). 

We drive the long way round, but the quickest is to go down central avenue then right into south avenue and follow a sign to the “LP section” (whatever that stands for). There is a gap in the hedge leading to a grass area with memorial trees planted and the pond is to the right, at the top of a terraced garden of memorial rose bushes.

The main entrance of the cemetery is on East End Road and this is the best one to use if you’re driving. There is also an entrance next to Christ’s College, but for some reason there are barriers across the paths that means you can only see a small part of the cemetery if you’re driving, and not the part where the pond is. There’s no problem with parking once you’re inside. It’s a ten-minute walk from East Finchley station and the 143 bus stops outside.

Judith Field

East Finchley Cemetery, 122 East End Road, London N2 0RZ

13. Greenhill Gardens

We’ve now visited one hundred and three parks. Some aren’t worth writing about, others are good to walk round if you happen to be in the area, and others have been worth making an effort to visit.

We try to bring a little bit of nature into the house (without damaging anything), but our little school nature table-style collection of cones and leaves needs new additions.  We’ve been as far out as Watford and as close as the end of our Mill Hill street. 

Greenhill Gardens is about middle-distance from our house. This attractive little park is another hidden gem. It’s right on the Great North Road between Whetstone and Barnet but I’d never noticed it, despite driving past it on more occasions than I can count. It’s another one I found by looking at a map. We visited the park in July when the weather was good, but despite the small size of the park, it wasn’t crowded. Although one side is bordered by back gardens, perhaps few people know it’s there.

Like many of the others we’ve visited, it used to be part of a much larger country estate, known as Pricklers (after a medieval family called Prittle).  If you’ve ever wondered why that part of the Great North Road is called Pricklers Hill, now you know. Later, the estate became known as Greenhill. Most of the land was developed for housing as a commuter suburb in the early 20th century, and the park represents the small portion that survived. The Local Authority bought it in 1926 and opened it to the public.

The main feature is an ornamental lake, fringed by alder and willow trees, with a wooded island. There are wooded parts to walk in and also a grassed area with scattered mature trees – plenty of space for children to run around in. There’s somewhere to relax for people of all ages. There are plenty of benches to rest on and relax. The park is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and attracts a variety of water birds. and bats (although, again, we didn’t see any).
There is access from Pricklers Hill EN5 and Greenhill Park, EN5, and you can park there or in nearby streets.

Judith Field

Greenhill Gardens, Pricklers Hill, Great North Road, High Barnet EN5 1HE

11. Sunny Hill Park

Sunny Hill Park, in Hendon, is one of Barnet’s so-called Premier Parks: ‘exemplar parks which are attractive, accessible, well maintained and offer a wide variety of facilities.’ It’s a large, hilly, mainly open space with a network of paths and plenty of benches. It’s also a local nature reserve with are areas managed with nature conservation in mind:  wildflower meadows and an area of rough grassland and scrub where there are slow-worms and butterflies. The park is home to a weekly timed 5 Km parkrun.

The park opened in 1922, when the local authority bought Sunnyhill Fields, which had belonged to Church Farm. The fields had been used for growing hay, before the internal combustion engine took over from horses and hay was no longer an important crop. More land was added in 1929.

There are brilliant views from the higher points, just the sort of place to go to alleviate lockdown cabin fever. Once again, I found that looking into the distance, rather than at close range at a computer screen or other members of the household, gives a sense of liberation. We visited the park in May, but I find it as liberating today - just the thing with Pesach almost here. It reminds me of my Liverpool childhood, when you could walk for five minutes to the Mersey and look across to the hills of Wales, grey on the horizon. 

Close to the park entrance on the Watford Way is a café serving lovely Israeli-style food – before Covid, I used to go there specially, to sit outside and have lunch with friends. At the moment the café is only serving takeaway food. There is also a playground, tennis and basketball courts and football pitches.

Near the playground is a peculiar structure made from stacked regular dodecahedrons (-hedra?), meant for climbing on by the looks of it, although as that’s not Jack’s thing (or mine) we didn’t try.

There is access from Church End, Sunny Hill, Watford Way, Great North Way, Sunny Gardens Road, Sunningfields Crescent and Church Terrace – all NW4. There is a small carpark at the end of the Watford Way (A41 Southbound) entrance – look out for it on the left as you drive along, the third on the left after Fiveways Corner.

Judith Field

Sunny Hill Park, Watford Way, NW4 4XA

9. Grovelands Park

This large park, in Southgate, dates from the late 18th century and was landscaped by Humphry Repton. It opened to the public in 1913 and won a Green Flag award in 2010. Like many that we’ve visited, it was originally the grounds of a house. This, now Grade 1 listed, was adapted as a military hospital in World War I and is now a private psychiatric hospital.
Within its boundaries are open grassland, ancient woodland, and a large lake where fishing is allowed. There are also natural meadows and reed beds: all supporting a wide variety of birds, insects and bats. We saw a swan and her cygnets in their nest on the bank of the lake. There’s a café, which may not be open now and which used to sell bird food – better for the wildfowl than bread. There’s also a playground and outdoor gym. The park is home to a weekly timed five-kilometre park run.

We visited in the middle of June, just as the first lockdown started to lift, and the park was very crowded. We tried without success to park on The Bourne and nearby side roads, but there is a car park with about six spaces right outside the main entrance, Inverforth Gate on The Bourne, and we managed to grab one of those. There are also entrances on Queen Elizabeth’s Drive, Broadwalk and Church Hill.

Judith Field
 

Grovelands Park, The Bourne, Southgate, London N14 6RA

7.  Oakmere Park and Parkfield Open Space

I’m writing about both places at the same time, because although we visited them separately it turns out that they’re on opposite sides of the High Street in Potters Bar. Together, the two parks have over a thousand trees. Oakmere has more introduced species, and Parkfield has more native ones.

Oakmere Park

Oakmere Park was once the grounds to Oakmere House, and it keeps some of the original layout. There are two lakes, two children’s playgrounds and a green gym. There are paths, and October 1916, a ‘Super Zeppelin’ (these could fly too high to be heard from the ground) was shot down over the park by Second Lieutenant WJ Tempest. The Zeppelin crashed onto an oak tree to the east of the park the pilot and all his crew were killed. The road that borders the park was named Tempest Avenue in his honour. 

In 2015 three sculptures, hand-carved by a local sculptor were installed, representing key features within the park: an acorn symbolising the trees that make up ‘Oak’ mere (see photo), a swan - as found on the two lakes and a fish. We didn’t see the swan. The fish was stolen in 2016 and I’ve been unable to find out whether the police were able to reel in the thief (don’t blame me – I got this from the Welwyn Hatfield Times).

There’s a car park in Salisbury Close, opposite the main entrance, but you have to pay to park. There are also pay and display parking bays on the High Street by the main entrance. The satnav led us straight to free spaces on the other side of the park, on the Grove (off Tempest Avenue). 
 
Parkfield Open Space

This Green Flag Award-winning park was acquired in 1934, having previously been part of a larger estate containing a house. That had been used as a convent, then a school, before being demolished in 1935. 

It contains a range of attractions including (so it’s much older than you might think), traditional meadows, a Japanese Garden, holly walk, remains of a Roman tile kiln (discovered in the nineteen-fifties), tree trail, Potters Bar Tennis Club, a lake, a pond with linking water channel, tree sculpture and a World War Two air raid shelter. A local artist carved the Parkfield Statue from a complete oak trunk in 1999, representing the people of Potters Bar, and that all life depends on trees.

There are parking bays along Billy Lows Lane which are free outside of restrictions (2-3pm), but you could also park in the Salisbury Close car park or on the High Street. 

Judith Field

Oakmere Park: Highview Gardens, Potters Bar EN6 5PJ
Parkfield Open Space: Billy Lows Lane, Potters Bar EN6 1UY