Park of the week

196. Woodhouse Urban Park

This pocket park was opened 2016, as part of the regeneration of South Kilburn.

It was built on the site of a demolished set of flats called Wood House, owned by Brent Council. When the old houses were cleared and replaced with tall blocks of flats, of which Wood House was one, a small park was created. At the time, the park was a plain lawn with trees and a small low rise brick wall around the edges. Following a major redevelopment of the area, the pocket park got more space. The old park had been open all around, but this revamped version has bedding plants around the sides with metal railings including defined gateways into the park.

The design of the park had input from the local community and features play provision, concrete seating, a diverse landscaped scheme and new trees, a “stage” and new paths. This cost £475,000, with part of the cost attributed to the discovery of lead-contaminated soil, which needed to be removed.

I found the park on a map and looked at online, to see if it had a “big lying down swing”. It did, so we visited one on-off drizzly day. Imagine my irritation when we found that, since the photo on Google Maps from 2022, the big lying down swing had been removed. I hope they’ll replace it, but I won’t know if they do because, according to Jack’s rules, we are only allowed to visit a park once. There are two sets of ordinary swings and Jack did his best to fit onto one of those, also slides and a wooden climbing structure. The park also has picnic tables and a table tennis table.

Judith Field

Woodhouse Urban Park, Albert Road, London NW6 5DR.