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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.

Become a Friend here - buy our book "A History Of Alexandra Park" in our shop

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.

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

Tree Planting - 8 new trees

The scheduled tree planting by TCV was postponed due to the new COVID restrictions and TCV have suspended volunteer work at present. Park contractors, John O'Conner will now do the planting.

There will be some landscaping work around the new pond in The Grove as well as planting 8 large-ish trees provided via the Mayor's Greener City Fund. What are they, I hear you ask.... 2 Small-leaved Limes (Tl), a Japanese Red Cedar (Cj), an English Oak (Qr), an Atlas Cedar (Ca), a Persian Ironwood (Pp), a Liquidambar (Ls) and a Tulip Tree (Lt). This map shows precisely where they will planted. The abbreviations are the latin names for the trees....

Picture is from the planting last Winter. More pictures here.

More Awards for the Park!

The Park has recently won a London in Bloom Award and Green Flag and Green Heritage Awards.

To celebrate the latest awards the BBC Tower was illuminated by green light.

Friends Events in the Park to come

All our events at present require pre-booking via email Allyparkn10@gmail.com

Walks

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We are not planning on having any organised walks while we remain in lockdown.

Conservation Work

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We are not planning on having any organised volunteer conservation work while we remain in this high tier.

Removing saplings with the Tree Popper (pictured) and bramble cutting back will be the main focus.

For a video of the tree popper in action - please follow this link. This new tool was kindly donated to the Friends by Gerry.

What's different, December 2020

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.

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.

There is now less demand for litter picking in the park....... however, we will continue to support the large number of brilliant volunteers helping to keep the park clean.

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' Past Events in the Park

History walks

Saturday 12^th December

Chapter 8 - ponds, pools and reservoirs was the theme for the fully subscribed History Walks. The weather held and the small group could be shown locations important in the past.... A few extra historical facts about the watery part of the park, not included in A History of Alexandra Park.

Picture shows a corner of the old Swimming Pool by the reservoir.

Nature walks

Saturday 12th December

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This nature walk went mostly along the Lower Path finding about 20 flowering wild flowers. , together with various fungi and a "Big Bud Hazel Gall" (pictured). Link to what was seen - the exception being the birds who did not perform as requested.

It is always impressive to find out what can be seen even in the depths of Winter.

Conservation Work Party - 20th October

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The Friends are still continuing the removal of grass from the western end of the Butterfly Meadow, but also tackling bramble and sapling removal.

This session we spotted some fungi including Fragile Brittle Gill and False Chanterelle.

Reports on work parties here.

Work in the Butterfly Meadow started in August with booked places limited to six people. For more information please email AllyParkN10@gmail.com.

Members' Walk - History, 5th October

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In spite of the inclement weather, Gordon led two history walks based on Chapter 7 of the new book. We found out about the Blandford (Banqueting) Hall history and how fire put an end to it in 1971.

Other topics included the building of airships and their test flying from the park during the early part of the 20th Century.

Much more information to be found in our new history book....

Some of the Friends normal events

Conservation Work Parties

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We have been working in the Butterfly Meadow on an almost weekly basis for the last few months with limited numbers. 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, local resident 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 or 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