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
20/02/2024 09:04:17 PM
133. Bury Lodge Gardens
Bury Lodge Gardens is an ornamental park in Enfield, a hidden quiet place close to the very busy A10. It’s on the site previously occupied by Bury Lodge, a timber-framed house dating from medieval times. The house was demolished in 1936. The layout of the gardens and award-winning rose beds, as established by Enfield Council in the nineteen thirties, has been preserved and in the grounds is an outdoor chessboard (bring your own pieces) constructed from kitchen tiles salvaged from the house.
The park is three parts. The first section is landscaped, with a walled garden, the second is a large open grassed space and the third is a children’s playground. There are plenty of benches and the park is bigger than it seems to be.
It has many rose beds (4700 roses were planted when the park was first opened), with long borders and other smaller flower beds, and a lily pond surrounded by pergola walks. These are covered with wisteria if you go at the right time of year, which we didn’t, but there were lots of snowdrops to be seen. A circular millstone from the house is set into the paving under the pergola closest to the entrance of the park.
The Friends of Bury Lodge Gardens work in the park every Wednesday morning. There are tarmacked paths all around the edge. Along the southern boundary is Salmon's Brook and to the east is a bowling green. A variety of trees including eucalyptus are found in the park. There are toilets but no café. There isn’t a car park, but we found space to park along the street.
Judith Field
Bury Lodge gardens, Bury Street West, London N9 9JN
13/02/2024 08:37:47 PM
132. Callowland Recreation Ground
The Callowland area of North Watford was developed during the nineteenth century. In 1881 the area belonged to the Earl of Essex, who purchased the land from the Master and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford. By 1890 house building was underway. In the early twentieth century Watford Council purchased 130 acres of the Callowland Estate with a view to house building. The area had become industrialised with the introduction of two cocoa works, Dr. Tibbles’ Vi-Cocoa and Bolsselier’s Chocolates, a printing works and the London and Northwestern Railway Company.
By the 1930s, a toilet, children’s playground, bowling green and pavilion and two shelters were there. By the 1960s a pavilion with tennis courts had been added.
I wondered what Dr Tibbles’ Vi-Cocoa was. According to an advertisement from 1897 it contained, in addition to cocoa, kola, extract of malt and extract of hops. It was said not to be a medicine but to “impart health”, particularly to the lungs. It was recommended for children, men and women with weak lungs, and for all men “who have to be exposed to the bleak uncertainty of our trying climate”. In the 1990s, I had a job enforcing the Medicines Act 1968, and one of the things we clamped down on were people making “medicinal claims” for unlicensed medicines. The factory burned down in 1903 and as far as I know, you can’t get it today – at least I don’t remember it from my law enforcement days.
Anyway- back to the park, which holds the Green Flag Award. It’s got shaded areas and wildflower planting, but also open space, with benches. There’s a sports court, with basketball nets and football goals, a children’s playground, outdoor gym, two football pitches with changing rooms, a cricket wicket and table tennis tables. It is also home to North Watford Bowls Club, and has a 1000step/0.4-mile route signposted around the park.
There are toilets, but no café. We found space to park on a nearby road.
Judith Field
Callowland Recreation Ground, 140 Gammons Ln, Watford WD24 5HY
06/02/2024 05:55:30 PM
131. Phillimore Recreation Ground
Phillimore Recreation Ground is Radlett’s largest park, providing 16 acres of parkland.
It was presented to Radlett in 1921 as a memorial to the recently deceased Robert Phillimore, a Liberal politician who had lived in Radlett. It remained largely untouched and in April 1926; at Radlett annual parish meeting, one attendee described it as “A hideous dump for rubbish,” and, at present, looking ‘‘more like a goods yard. It began to be developed in 1930 and a bowling pavilion was also built then.
As Robert’s widow Lucy had provided much of the money, she came to open it in July of that year. At that time, on impulse, she also donated an extra strip of land next to the Recreation Ground. She had originally intended this strip for housing, but it became a children’s play area, and still is to this day. The Herts Advertiser reported 18 July 1930 that ‘…she noticed how a good deal of what were once open spaces were being built on, so they had to do something in Radlett before their open spaces were used up’.
The park now includes a recently refurbished children’s play area, playing fields, a multi-use games area including a tennis court and a woodland area. There’s also an outdoor gym, bowls club and allotments. It has a car park, toilets and a café. I recommend it whether you have kids or not, as there's plenty of room to walk. A path runs all around the edge, so don't worry about getting muddy shoes.
Judith Field
Phillimore Recreation Ground, Gills Hill, Radlett, WD7 8AL
