The website for Muswell Hill and District Gardeners

Set in a very residential area of Haringey, with Sunshine Garden Centre and two schools backing on to the perimeter of the Park, Green Flag award winning Albert Road Recreation Ground is incredibly popular with both adults and children of all ages.

The brightly coloured playground is a favourite for the younger children and the tennis courts, basketball courts and bowling green keep people of all ages entertained. The popular and much loved Pavilion Cafe provides the perfect viewing point to watch the regular football, cricket and Aussie Rules football that take place on the playing fields throughout the year. It provides a community focal point often used for meetings and parties and is also home to Haringey Tennis, an organisation that manages the Park's very popular tennis courts.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Friends Organization: Friends of Albert Recreation Ground
Area: 6.4 hectare
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Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Alexandra Palace Trust
Friends Organization: Friends of Alexandra Park
Area: 79.32 hectares
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Local Authority: Haringey
Area: 1.38 hectares
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Bluebell Wood is a small area of ancient woodland covering just over one hectare located towards the eastern edge of Muswell Hill bounded on one side by the Golf Course Allotments and the Muswell Hill Golf Course on the other. It is open to the public at all times and is regularly used by local people.

Found in the Wood is the rare wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis) as well as being home to a variety of wildlife. Birds including song thrush, chaffinch and magpie are commonly seen as well as butterflies and mammals such as squirrel, hedgehog and the wood mouse.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Area: 1 hectare

A popular local park, consisting of open grassland and woodland with extensive quiet areas, plus a popular play area. The site acts as a focal point for the community, with events held on the central field.

Local Authority: Barnet
Managed by: Barnet
Friends Organization: Friends of Cherry Tree Wood
Area: 5.43 hectare
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Facilities: Kiosk / cafe, play area, tennis courts, multi-sports pitch, toilets

Coldfall Wood is a fascinating area of ancient woodland covering 14 hectares on the western edge of the borough.

The wood has historically been managed through coppicing where trees and shrubs are cut to just above their base and new growth from the stump is then harvested on a rotation of around every 15 to 20 years. The number of years between each cut depended upon what the wood was needed for ie firewood or broom handles. This benefits wildlife by allowing in light for wildflowers and other plants, attracting butterflies and animals.

Traditionally the cut wood in Coldfall Wood was used for making charcol but is now left in piles to decay. The dead wood is a very important part of what makes woodland healthy. It makes great homes for beetles and other insects and fungi. These provide food for woodland creatures like birds and hedgehogs.

The tradition of coppicing was revived in November 2006 with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and even though the project is still in the early stages, the benefits to wildlife can already be seen with an additional 150 plant species having been recorded.

In addition to coppicing, the HLF funded project includes new bridges, benches and the creation of a reed bed to help filter stream water to treat pollution. The Coldfall Wood nature trail for school children has been created so that they can discover the wildlife in this wonderful woodland, and children from Coldfall Primary School regularly litter pick in the Wood.

Haringey Council is committed to the sustainable management of its woodlands and has achieved forest certification at Coldfall Wood under the UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS). UKWAS sets out management standards for woodland owners and managers and is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Friends Organization: Friends of Coldfall Wood
Area: 14 hectares

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Local Authority: Haringey
Friends Organization: CREOS
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Click here for a Detailed Disability Access Guide

Predominantly an oak and hornbeam wood, it is also home to numerous other tree and shrub species which have self-seeded there. Small areas are fenced off to encourage natural regeneration. The bird population has increased dramatically in recent years, both in types and numbers - some 70 different species have been recorded, alongside the foxes, grey squirrels, five species of bat, 180 species of moth, 12 species of butterfly and 80 species of spider.

As well as a football and cricket field, Highgate Wood offers visitors a supervised children's playground, a pleasant cafe and an information centre with booklets.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Corporation of London
Area: 28 hectares
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Managed by: Friends of Hornsey Church Tower

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Muswell Hill Playing Fields are situated in Haringey and lie on the borough's north eastern boundary, close to the A406 North Circular Road.

The site is nearly 10 hectares in size and is listed as a 'site of local importance for nature conservation'.

Currently there are 6 usable grass soccer pitches, plus a further pitch, which is subject to flooding. Temporary changing room accommodation is available on site

An agreement with a new housing development, building in the neighbouring vicinity, has resulted in a sum of money for improving the playing fields. Like most parks and open spaces it is designated as Metropolitan Open Land. Metropolitan Open Land gives protection to open spaces and can only be built on where the building adds to, or supports, recreational activity ie paths, tennis courts, play facilities, café, toilets, changing accommodation, parks compound, limited access parking etc. This redevelopment is ongoing and based on the discussions and survey results a Master Plan will be drawn up and the project costed.

As a first stage the area developed has been restricted to the former cricket pitch and to internal paths leading to it. The new mini-park facilities consist of:
a double size floodlit multi use training area,
3 childrens playground areas including one that features natural play like fallen trees, logs, grass mounds and boulders,
a skateboard park designed as a street plaza, the first of its kind in London and
90 new trees have been planted with shrub beds, new lit access paths constructed with benches and bins.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Area: approx 10 hectares

Facilities: Kickabout Area, Football, Changing Facilities, Children's Playground, Skateboard Park
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Local Authority: Haringey
Area: 0.7 hectare
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Entrances within N4: Finsbury Park, Oxford Rd, Florence Rd, Lancaster Rd, Stapleton Hall Rd, Blythwood Rd
Entrances within N6 and N8: Crouch End Hill, Crescent Rd, Holmesdale Rd
Entrances within N10: Cranley Gds, Muswell Hill Rd underpass, St James' Lane, Muswell Hill Rd

The Parkland Walk follows the course of the old railway that ran between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace. The four and a half miles provides tranquillity and a chance for those living in London, to enjoy the green environment in the very heart of the city.

It is London's longest Local Nature Reserve and supports a remarkable range of habitats and wildlife. Over two hundred species of wild flower have been recorded and it is probably the only place in Haringey where orchids rub shoulders with dandelions and ivy clambers up fig trees.

Hedgehogs, foxes, butterflies and a vast array of birds are spotted on a daily basis and a rare species of deer, the muntjac, is spotted from time to time.

A man sized green spriggan sculpture by Marilyn Collins was placed in one of the alcoves of the wall on the right at the footbridge before the former Crouch End station. The sculpture, and Parkland Walk generally, provided the inspiration for Stephen King's short story "Crouch End".

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Friends Organization: Friends of the Parkland Walk
Area: 12.97 hectares
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Priory Park has been a Green Flag award winner for six years in a row. The Park is in Hornsey and covers an irregular shaped 6.5 hectares. In addition to the ample green space the park contains a café, paddling pool, tennis courts, playgrounds and a variety of other sporting and recreational facilities.

More than 25,000 people visit the park each year, many to enjoy functions in the Pavilion or picnics in the Philosopher's Garden, which is a dog-free area. The outstanding fountain is used as a large planter. Unveiled in the Pleasure Grounds in 1909, it is made from 50 tonnes of Lamorna granite. The original eastern section of the park preserves much of its 19th and 20th century landscaping with well maintained bedding displays, serpentine walks, perimeter shrub beds, mature silver birches, plane trees and an attractive area of mixed tree planting

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Area: 6.5 hectares
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Queens Wood is one of four ancient woodlands in Haringey. These woods are commonly thought to be the direct descendants of the original 'wildwood', which covered most of Britain about five thousand years ago. However, archaeological and documentary evidence indicates that though there were extensive areas of woodland in the area, they were not part of a wildwood forest.

Archaeological evaluations suggest that in the medieval period the wood was rooted by pigs in the winter months and grazed at other times of the year by other animals as well as being used for a supply of wood. The most prominent historic feature in the wood is the remains of a woodbank that was constructed in the 16th century to protect the new growth on the coppiced woods from browsing animals. This was probably built in response to the 'Bill for the Preservation of Woods' enacted by Henry VIII's Parliament in 1543.

In the nineteenth century the wood was known as Churchyard Bottom Wood, until it was purchased by Hornsey Urban District Council in 1898 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and renamed Queens Wood in honour of Queen Victoria.

The wood is an ancient oak-hornbeam woodland. Today English oak and occasional beech stand above hornbeam, midland hawthorn, hazel, mountain ash, field maple, cherry, holly and both species of lowland birch. The rare Wild Service-tree (Sorbus torminalis) is scattered throughout the wood.

The ground flora is particularly rich for somewhere so close to central London. It includes a large population of wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), native bluebells, wood goldilocks (Ranunculus auricomus).

Despite fairly high levels of disturbance, the bird life is diverse and includes two species of woodpecker. Over one hundred species of spiders have been spotted and a nationally rare jewel beetle is widespread.

Much of the Management and Conservation is done by 2 groups of volunteers from friends of Queen’s Wood and TCV . There are no keepers in the wood.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Friends Organization: Friends of Queen's Wood
Area: 21 hectares
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Local Authority: Haringey

Built on the site of the old Stationers Park School and opened in 1987, this small Green Flag award winning 1.5 hectare Park nestles between a Victorian housed community, local school and Community Centre.

Adults and children of all ages extensively use the park whether for sport, play, organised events, picnicking or just for quiet contemplation.

Stationers Park provides a welcome oasis of greenery and makes a vital contribution to the health, education and quality of life for its immediate surrounding community.

A sense of exploration abounds as children are attracted to the magnetising power of the gushing waterfall that flows into a gentle meandering stream, containing a fascinating array of plants and wildlife. Children can experience and view these features from the nearby footpaths and bridge while their senses are stimulated by the sound of running water.

Local Authority: Haringey
Managed by: Haringey
Friends Organization: Friends of Stationers
Area: 1.6 hectares

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Local Authority: Haringey