Park of the week

28. Markfield Park

This park is on the southeast boundary of London Borough of Haringey. I found it by looking for large patches of green on a map. This is something I do quite often, particularly when petrol is easy to come by. It doesn’t always give the best results, but in this case it did and I’m glad we came. 

The area the park now covers was a field in the Middle Ages. Markfield House was built on it in 1798, in what was then the fashionable rural village of Tottenham. The house was demolished when Tottenham was developed into a London suburb. In 1849, a corner of the park was given over to the Tottenham Sewage Works. In 1936 Markfield Recreation ground was established as one of the national ‘King George’s Field’ memorials to King George V, and it was opened to the public in 1938. The eastern boundary of the park is the River Lee, where we walked along the bank.

An old pumping station from the former sewage works, located in the park, is now the Markfield Beam Engine and Museum, containing original Victorian pumping engines.  It’s open on the second Sunday of each month all year round, which is this coming Sunday! We visited during the week so now my challenge is to get Jack to agree to go back so that I, I mean we, can see the engines in all their steampunk splendour.

There’s a café with an outdoor seating area, beneath a pergola trained with vines by the café owner. There are also toilets. Cycling is permitted, as are dogs on leads. There’s a range of deciduous and coniferous tree species, a large grassland area, rose garden, community garden, football and netball pitches, an outside gym and a children’s playground. There is also a skate park/BMX track, where art graffiti (an oxymoronic term) has been tolerated since the 1990s. The park is home to a sculpture called ‘Bull’, a gift to the Friends of Markfield Park from the sculptor Jack Gardner. 

There are entrances to the park in Crowland Road, Gladesmore Road, Markfield Road (where there’s a car park) and from the towpath along the river. 

Markfield Park, Crowland Road, London N15 4RB