Welcome to Alexandra Park  Alexandra Park was originally
designed by Alexander McKenzie, in 1863, as a park and pleasure ground. The 196 acres of park now consists of a delightful mixture of informal woodland, open grassland, formal gardens and attractions such as the boating lake, cafes and the pitch-and-putt course.
Go Ape Adult Course Opening  Taken from their website: "Pre - book now for opening 7th October 2017, Tree Top Adventure at Alexandra Palace is an unforgettable outdoor adventure. The 2-3 hour course features renowned Go Ape crossings such as the Zig Zag Bridge and Chantermerle's Crossing as well as a brand new obstacle...the quick fall!" Fireworks Festival  Early Bird Tickets still available for Friday at £8. Saturday entry £11. (This does not include entry to the Bier Festival (extra £13 Friday, £16 Saturday)) Conservation Work Party Thursday, 19th October, 10am to 12:30pm  No special skills required; we will be cutting back and uprooting the remaining brambles in the meadow. Enjoy exercise, plenty of fresh air and good conversation. Bring gardening gloves and secateurs if you have them, but if not we have spares to loan. We usually work from 10 am to 12.30 pm, but come for as long as you want. Meet at the Butterfly Meadow, if you know it, or at the finger post where the path from North View Road meets the (newly surfaced) Lower Road. Earlier Friends' work days. October Members Walk Saturday, 21st October, 2pm to 3pm  Meet by the Boating Cafe. Autumn Tree Walk  Meet at the Park Information Centre in The Grove. Past events Details of many of our previous events can be found here These are the most recent events: September Conservation Work Party  Instead of a picture of hard working volunteers, here is one the two Small Copper butterflies seen while we were enjoying the space. The only other butterflies seen this time were Speckled Woods and some type of White... Autumn Bat Walk  We usually keep a look out for Britain's largest bat - the Noctule. This bat usually flies quite high and is not often seen at the lake. So we were especially pleased to see one make an early appearance. It flew over the lake for 5 to 10 minutes. A little later the Soprano and Common Pipistrelles were out and flying just over our heads. We had great views and heard a lot via the bat detectors....... London Metropolitan Brass  Of special note it was a pleasure to welcome Beginners to their inaugural concert. In order to quell the nerves and make sure everything was perfect for their performance they did a quick run through in the Park Information Centre (picture left) while the main band were entertaining the people in The Grove. When the Intermediate Band went on a break, in stepped the  They gave a well disciplined and entertaining performance cheered on by their fellow musicians - a great show and they were not put off by the very light drizzle. Later back came the Intermediate Band fortified by wedding cake to resume their set with rousing music of all styles. The quality of this band continues to improve and a great experience for all in The Grove on our last Band performance of the year in the Park. They finished with a great rendition of Baggy Trousers. September Members Walk  The theme for this month's Members Walk was Boundary Oaks. Meeting up at the Park Information Centre, where many old maps are kept, we inspected them for traces of old field lines where we might find oaks predating the set up of the Park. We started looking in The Grove where there are probably the oldest trees in the Park including the fenced off oak familiar to many visitors. (pictured) 
Crossing the road there is another old oak a candidate for being prior to the park. We walked around the Palace, ending up below the Rose Garden and seeing another line of oaks. These are probably old enough to have been present before the Park was set up. Some of these oaks have been fenced off as they have recently been  A final line of trees was in fact the most certain to be examples of trees present before the park. This line extends from the woodland near where the old Blandford Hall was across Alexandra Palace Way and to below the Lower Road. One of these trees fell down in February 2014 and its rings were counted. The number added up to just over 200 meaning that the tree was over 200 years old and was already 50 years old when the Park was founded. The last tree in the line and on the walk was within the Nature Conservation Area. (pictured left) Friends Conservation Work Party - August  Lots of mini mattock work..... During the time there, we saw quite a lot of Meadow Brown butterflies together with the odd Common Blue and Gatekeeper. A highlight for me was this Violet Ground Beetle which we disturbed before replacing it. Members August Nature Walk  At the entrance we saw one of the Oak trees infested with Oak Processionary Moth. The nest and stripped leaves (with midribs left) were pointed out. The offending creatures will be removed by August 15th. We saw a few butterflies including a Gatekeeper that was temporarily netted. The highlight of this part of the walk was definitely the Wasp Spider sitting in her web. (pictured left) These spiders have spread into the country from the continent. Then in a Grey Willow we found a large group of Buff tip moth caterpillars much more brightly coloured than their adult form.  On Oak Trees we saw Knopper, Marble, Artichoke, Spangle, Silk Button and Ram's Horn galls showing the diversity of wildlife that depends on our native oaks. It was fruiting season for many trees and shrubs and we looked at the "berries" of Dogwood, Rose, Blackthorn (sloe), Hawthorn and Guelder Rose. The second picture (left) shows us searching in the long grass.... A nice stroll up towards to the Bedford Road entrance giving a nice indication of the flora and fauna that the Park has to offer. Family Bug Hunt  Luckily summery, sunny weather was the order of the day. Youngsters and Oldsters were quick to grab nets and trays and set out to see what beasties could be found. Mirid bugs and Harvestmen (spider relatives) were brought in a good quantity. On the ladybird front several Harlequin were found together with four or five 16 spots - this small species pictured. Ashy Mining Bee was admired as was a Grasshopper and several Earwigs. Butterflies eluded the nets, but Gatekeeper, Common Blue and some unidentified Whites were seen. Probably one of the more impressive finds was a large Ichneumon Wasp (link shows it being released, as were all our finds). Summer Festival 2017  The Friends stall in The Grove had two main attractions; for the young children there was a chance to create a "Butterfly Crown" this proved very popular and extra chairs had to be brought to satisfy demand. Many great designs were seen going off on top of happy heads... For the adults, there was something a bit less hands-on. The photo competition this year consisted of a Map of the Park with 12  To try the competition for yourself: follow this link. On-going events
Free Health Walks Health
walks, starting in Priory Road and walking into Alexandra Park, take place every Monday at 10:15 am. Everyone welcome, whatever level of fitness. Lasts 45 minutes. More details.  Recently the Park Run has topped 180 runners!
Park Run is organised by volunteers and is free to anyone wishing to take part, but prior registration is needed. See http://www.parkrun.org.uk/allypally.
For an interview with the founder and director of Park Run in Alexandra Park, Catherine Edeam, see Interviews. The Conservation Volunteers August 2017  Our job was to clear some of the saplings of mostly Robinia and Elder underneath the large Black Locust tree below the Rose Garden. They were cut up and then placed around a nearby dead Oak Tree to discourage people from approaching too closely. This should achieve its purpose when combined with the bramble growing around the old tree's base. Next date: 15th October (postponed by a week) The Conservation Volunteers work in the grounds of Alexandra Park usually on the second Sunday of every month. They carry out various conservation tasks such as pond clearance, building foot bridges, planting trees, and opening glades to increase bio-diversity. More information on previous TCV work and how to volunteer. Want to hear about future Park and Alexandra Palace Way closures? If you are fascinated by the Trees in the Park you may wish to try out our new and growing "Tree App". Follow this link for details.
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