Park of the week

155. Down Lane Park

This park is another one that I found by looking at a map, and is in Tottenham Hale. Until a few years ago, it was the typical recreation ground, with extensive mown grass and lines of trees around the edge, but the Council planted native trees, including birch, hazel and wild cherry. In these areas the grass is left to grow, allowing wildflowers to become established. 

It is sited on what was once open land, referred to as ‘Lammas Land’, a description rather than a name in this case, although it’s also the name of a park in Cambridge. This was something I hadn’t seen before; it means land that was private property until Lammas Day (also known as Loafmas or Lughnasa on August 1st: not long to wait, now) after which it was were subject to common rights of pasturage until spring. The council acquired the site in 1900 and it was formally opened in 1907. By 1935 the park had a linear area of gardens and paths with perimeter planting, and perimeter planting around the site and an athletics ground and running track had been installed. The park was used for concert parties and bands as well as sporting activities.

It's designated as Significant Local Open Land and is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation. In 2012 the site was named a Queen Elizabeth II Field as part of the Fields in Trust campaign to protect outdoor recreational spaces as a legacy of the Diamond Jubilee.  It has a community garden, football pitches, basketball and tennis courts, children’s play areas, skateboard area and a bowling green. There is a café, and toilets.

Judith Field

Down Lane Park, Park View Rd, London N17 9AU

153. Distaff Lane Garden

This garden, opened in 2018, is in the heart of the City of London, between St Paul’s Cathedral and St Nicholas Cole Abbey, which isn’t actually an abbey, but a church. The name is derived from “coldharbour”, a medieval word for a traveller’s shelter or shelter from the cold. It’s dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra, the patron saint of fishermen, and in Elizabethan times there was an important fish market next to it. This must explain the name of this nearby alley, and the fact that Distaff Lane used to be called Fish Street.

The garden was designed with the aim of supporting biodiversity and providing shade and plant interest. with a small cluster of trees, divided by interweaving paths. There are birch trees and a single pin oak. The trees are underplanted with a mix of shade and drought tolerant perennials and grasses. I’m including this photo of a plant I saw growing there just because I like the name of the plant – Heavenly Bamboo. At the rear of the garden is a “water wall” where water bubbles over stones with a texture inspired by fish scales, recognising the area’s historic importance as a fish market. 

The park replaced a carpark that sat next to an office block. It used to have a plot of grass on the top. When the old office block was demolished and the current one built, the car park entrance was made into the garden. Part of the reason for the garden being in this specific location is that the slice taken out of the side of the office building to allow it exists to preserve a line of sight between the church and St Paul’s Cathedral.

This sculpture of Icarus (you’ll have to take my word that he’s the subject) used to be on the old lawn on top of the car park. 

Judith Field

Distaff Lane Garden, Distaff Lane, London EC4V 5EY

151. Woodside Park

This park is actually in Wood Green. 

The site was originally part of the much larger Chitts Hill Estate which covered a large part of Wood Green and beyond. Most of what later became the park was developed as Earlham Grove House and grounds in 1865.
Former occupants include philanthropist Catherine Smithies (1785–1877), who founded the Bands of Mercy animal welfare group which later merged with the RSPCA. Wood Green local board of health purchased Earlham Grove House, with eleven acres of land, in 1893. 

I found out that, in 1899, before land was converted to a park and opened in 1900, three men were prosecuted for playing pitch and toss there on a Sunday, in breach of Sunday gambling laws. One of the accused had got away at first, over a barbed wire fence, but when one of the police officers ‘attempted the same feat, came to grief, tearing his uniform and losing certain money.’ The men were fined 2s 6d with costs, i.e. 12.5p, equivalent to about £21 today. 

The park has a mix of open grassland, trees, (horse chestnut, lime and oak), a play area, sports pitch, bowling club and a sensory garden with seating and aromatic plants. 

An interesting building in the park is the Mushroom House or Round House, Wood Green’s oldest building. This is the former gate house to Chitts Hill House, built in 1822 and now Grade II listed. It’s tiny, with only two bedrooms, but the 1871 census shows it was home to the coachman, his wife and six children plus a lodger. It became a tearoom, then a children’s playhouse, then fell derelict, but it was restored and is now in residential use.

There’s a café, toilets and benches. There isn’t a car park, but we parked on a nearby street.

Judith Field

Woodside Park, 294 High Rd, London N22 8YX

149. Downhills Park 

This park is in South Tottenham. It’s surrounded by residential streets, enclosed by iron railings, and is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation. 

The park is named after an Eighteenth-Century house that had stood on the land. In 1901, in response to a campaign by local residents worried about the loss of open space (as the site was earmarked for housing), the council bought the land, grounds and adjoining fields. The council demolished the house and incorporated its gardens into a new park, opened to the public in 1903. They kept many features of the house grounds and also built several new features such as a bandstand and conservatory. The park was extended in 1904 on the recommendation of the District Medical Officer following a smallpox epidemic.

The park's facilities, especially tennis, were very popular in the nineteen thirties and in 1934 the borough introduced a giant draughts board, “the first in the Metropolis”.

I often check the British Newspaper Archive when writing these posts, and according to an article from the Daily Mirror of 7th August 1942, as part of the Council’s holiday-at-home week about three hundred babies were entered into a baby contest in the park, instead of the anticipated fifty “for three hours we struggled through the list, judging the babies in batches of a dozen”. Some of the babies got separated from their mothers and had to be offered from the stage for claiming, but eventually a winner was chosen.

The article mentions that an official had said, “with apprehension,” that there was to a dog show the next day.

After the Second World War the older features of the park were gradually lost. From the nineteen eighties onwards, Haringey Council built new children's play facilities and planted the bandstand site with trees. The old playground became a wildflower meadow, and a cafe was built on the site of the former bowling club. There are a variety of trees in the park, including some of the original cedars and a hornbeam avenue from the grounds of the house. 

The park has a woodland area, open space, a rose garden, tennis and basketball courts, football and rugby pitches, an outdoor gym, playground, a café, and toilets. There’s no car park, but we found space on one of the surrounding streets.

Judith Field

Downhills Park, Downhills Park Road, London, N17 6PE.

147. Fortune Street Garden

I visited this pocket park, just north of the Barbican, after visiting Charterhouse Square, which I’ll write about another time. The park is named after the street on which it is situated. In pre-war times that street was known as Playhouse Yard, which was in turn named after the old Fortune Theatre that once stood there.
In 1600, the theatre was built for Edward Alleyn and Philip Henslowe, and modelled on Shakespeare’s The Globe to act as a competitor. The wooden structure burnt down in 1621, but it was rebuilt in brick and was mentioned in Samuel Pepys’s diary. Following an ordnance the dismantling of playhouses issued by the Puritans, the building was dismantled in 1649. 

Other buildings were constructed on the same site, but when the Fortune Street area was heavily bombed during the Second World War, it was decided that the area would remain cleared, and it was laid out as a park in the early nineteen sixties.

It was refurbished in 2002, and this included landscaping and re-siting of play equipment. A large wall covered in mosaics was added by local school children. The park won the Green Flag Award in 2006.
There are trees, grassed areas, wildlife areas, benches to sit on, toilets and the Giddy Up café.

On the way back, I decided to get a bus part of the way. This took me through Islington, past some more parks and gardens that I’ve added to our to-visit list. 

Judith Field

Fortune Street Park, Fortune Street, London EC2Y 8DQ