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.
Friends Upcoming Events
Conservation Work Party Wednesday, 28th August 10am to 12:30pm  The Friends will be working in "The Spinney". This is the area opposite the Park Visitor Centre in The Grove. We will be joined by TCV with objects to help protect the new hedge, but especially to remove tree saplings growing up in the area. No special skills required; enjoy exercise, plenty of fresh air and good conversation. Please bring secateurs if you have them, but we have extras you can use. We usually work from 10 am to 12.30 pm, but come for as long as you want and TCV will be continuing after lunch. Meet in The Grove opposite the Park Visitor Centre. London Metropolitan Brass in The Grove  Come and lie on the grass and/or grab an ice cream for our last band performance of the year. Lots more pictures of last year's performance here. Family Bug Hunt Saturday, 7th September 1:30pm to 2:30pm (rearranged date)  No booking required, just turn up at the southern edge of Newland Field by the end of Campsbourne Road. Need more information? Email AllyParkN10@gmail.com .  Friends' Recent Events  Our main activity was making crowns for kids including this example (left) modelled beautifully by our treasurer, Nick. Last year we had 50 masks for kids to make running out on time at the end. This year there were 80 crowns made running out 10 minutes before the end. We also had our popular tree leaf ID challenge, but this was a little complicated this year with windy conditions.... We set up an Xplorer course around the area of the stall, with kids encouraged to find various cards in the trees in return for stickers. Lots of takers. The photo quiz this year consisted of our pictures of the park and more recent ones where the difficult task was to match us the correct pairs of  For anyone who wants to try their hand at the competition then the pictures will be up in the Park Visitor Centre for the next month. (open 2pm to 4pm Sundays and first Saturdays of the month) Another option is to look at the pictures online - link here. For more pictures of the Great Fete see this link.  Next was a parasitic flower, the Ivy Broomrape, which has no leaves and takes nutrients from the Ivy. We walked towards the Nature Pond looking at Guelder Rose (inedible) and Dogwood Berries (poisonous) as well as Great Willowherb and, from a distance, the first dogwood leaves colouring for Autumn.  Other nice spots were a ?Common Blue? Damselfly (pic by Tony Jakeman) and two types of dragonfly, the Common Darter (left pic also by Tony Jakeman) and Southern Hawker. In the woods, we saw the effects of Ash Die-Back and further flowers including Hoary Ragwort, Russian Comfrey and Spear Thistle. Exiting the woods, we walked alongside the lower road and looked at few more flowers including Common Fleabane and a first time for Wild Carrot.  The weather did improve a bit later and there were even a few birds heard. The wild flowers are perhaps at their peak with the ragwort and knapweed attracting the butterflies. We should back there a couple of months..... London Metropolitan Brass  Luckily the temperature was a little lower than the Saturday, but ice creams were still very much a favourite cooling down treat. London Met Brass will be playing again at the Great Fete so make a point of listening to their repertoire. Beginners Tree Walk This Summer Walk made use of the shade as Robyn led us around The Grove inspecting Hornbeams, Beech, Lime, Oak for example and explained some of ways of identifying all these tree species – by leaf shape, leaf feel, bark etc.. A very enjoyable walk and the participants finished it off with cool drinks in the garden – all in all a very pleasant afternoon. The Conservation Volunteers June 2019  The warm weather was a pleasant for the work party this month, but after a while of energetically removing brambles it did cause a little tiredness, luckily the shade at the bottom of the meadow did help. Good progress along the whole bottom section of the meadow leaving the area free for the soft grasses and wild flowers to continue to progress. The next conservation session in the Park will be on Wednesday, 24th July. Meet at 10am. To book or for more information contact David Allen the new BAT East Project Officer, email david.allen@tcv.org.uk or call on Tel: 07917 267 573.
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