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Welcome to Alexandra Park

in North London

Alexandra Park is a delightful mixture of informal woodland, open grassland, formal gardens and attractions such as the boating lake, cafés and the pitch-and-putt course. It covers 196 acres around Alexandra Palace in North London.

The Friends of Alexandra Park is a voluntary group that promotes the use of the Park, encourages the conservation of its wildlife and protects the Park from unwanted development.

The Friends have recently published a new book about The History of Alexandra Park which can be purchased here.

The 2020 pandemic caused various parts of the Palace and Park to be closed. By the beginning of August, 2020, only the following remain closed.

The Park Visitor Centre is closed (but we are planning to distribute leaflets of walks etc from the bandstand area, near the Grove Cafe, on some fine weather weekends).

The Capital Gardens Centre Cafe is closed.

Alexandra Palace is closed, including the Terrace. (but you may book to use the beer garden at weekends)

Most of the car parks are closed (but the East Court Car Park is open - see Alexandra Palace site).

Friends Tweets

Our normal activities include:

Organising walks and talks about trees, bats, fungi, moths, insects, birds and the history of Alexandra Park, and conservation work.

Sending a newsletter every month to all our members.

Running the Park Visitor Centre, where you can find leaflets, chat to volunteers and find activities for children.

What's different, August 2020

Pitch and Putt

The ten-hole pitch and putt course has re-opened, in summer 2020, under new management.

For now, you will need to book in advance.

Farmers' Market

Alexandra Palace Farmers’ Market is open at its Campsbourne School location. NHS staff and vulnerable people will have priority between 10am-11am. Strict social distancing will be in place. Only two people per household to allow faster access for others too.

Dog walking

The Park Management are asking dog walkers using the Park to please keep dogs on their leads. This is to support social distancing protocols and ensure owners don't inadvertently breach the two metre guidelines to retrieve their dogs.

Litter

Like most parks around the country, Alexandra Park suffered a wave of littering when lockdown began to be eased. Fortunately the John O’Conner team were working throughout lockdown.

A growing band of local volunteers (now around a hundred) joined in the litter clearance effort, enabling the John O’Conner team to keep up with their other grounds maintenance tasks. A big thank you to John O’Conner and all those volunteers.

Anyone wishing to join the volunteer litter pickers, should please Email us.

The Palace has been appealing for donations, because of their almost total loss of income caused by the pandemic, and some of those donations have paid for additional John O’Conner litter clearing staff at the weekends.

Please see the Alexandra Palace site if you'd like to help with a donation.

Friends' Events in the Park

As at August 2020, the only events that we are running in the park are litter picking and we are starting work again in the Butterfly Meadow, with booked places limited to six people. For more information please email AllyParkN10@gmail.com. At present all other events in the Park are cancelled or postponed until further notice. This will be reviewed when government advice changes.

Some of the Friends normal events

Conservation Work Parties

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The key task taken on is removing bramble and saplings from the Butterfly Meadow area. This open space is covered in anthills of the yellow meadow ant. A great place to spot different butterflies and other wildlife. Other work parties have taken place in The Grove and by the edge of the Redston field and an annual litter pick.

Reports on work parties here.

Pictures from the work parties.

Pictures of the Butterfly Meadow.

Talks

Mostly taking place in the Winter and early Spring the talks focus on Nature (Butterflies, Bees, Birds etc.) with some on history and other subjects that are relevant to the Park.

We have had great talks on Bats, Trees, the New River and the old railway line that used to run up to the Palace.

Coming up when conditions allow will be Stuart Little will presenting elements from his film about the Park and Palace....

This will be great opportunity to see some elements of history from the early days up and until the (second) fire in 1980.

Nature Walks

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We put on a number of different Nature Walks throughout the year. Normally 2 Bird Walks a year, 2 Bat Walks, 2 Fungi Walks, 3/4 Tree Walks plus extra walks on an ad hoc basic such as this year's Moss and Liverwort walk. All these activities are open to all and free.

Reports on all types of walks here.

Members' Walks

There are normally about 10 of these a year focusing on Nature (Wild Flowers, Tree Galls plus plus), History (seeing what was where) or just keeping people informed as to what's going on in the Park - these are our only Members' Only events.

The next walk (when pandemic restrictions permit) is planned to be:

Beating the Bounds: A brisk walk round the perimeter of the Park and a chance to look at what’s been happening in the Park in recent times.

Reports on earlier walks