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.
- We organise walks and talks about trees,
bats, fungi, moths, insects, birds and the history of Alexandra Park. You can
also join our work parties.
- We run the Park Visitor Centre, where
you can find out more about the park; there are also activities for children. In the winter months, we
open every Sunday 11 am to 1 pm and also the first Saturday of the month.
Events in the Park (ordered by date)
Friends Events in Green other select events in Blue.
Members' Walk
Sunday, 19th January 1:30pm to 2:30pm
The theme for this month's Members' Walk is Green in the Blandford Hall area. We will meet by the Gas Hut by eastern road entrance to the park.
The route will be through the woodland area above Alexandra Palace Way. We will see what is green this time of year. Any trees? Any shrubs? Wildflowers? Here is a picture of something white in the meantime - Snowberries in that same area.
After the walk, we will look to adjourn to the Boating Lake Cafe.
Conservation Work Party
Friday, 24th January 10am to 12:30pm
For our first conservation work party of the new year, we will back in the Butterfly Meadow looking to cut back bramble, shady trees and saplings. It will be good to hear if any birds are out early singing and if any new wildflowers are poking their heads up.
Big Garden Birdwatch
Sunday, 26th January 11am to 2pm
NW LONDON RSPB GROUP will be at the Boating Lake from 11.00 am to approx. 2.00 pm with a Guided Birdwalk scheduled for Noon. There will be a RSPB Sales & Information Stall in the Cafe Boathouse. In 2019 we saw a Black Redstart. Peregrine Falcon (left) have been spotted here in the past. Winter visiting Redwings are also present and the Boating Lake attracts a variety of Gulls and Waterfowl.
 of the Hertfordshire and Middlesex branch of the Butterfly Conservation will give us a talk on Lepidoptera for the first talk of 2020. We meet up from 7:30pm with the talk starting at 8pm prompt and expected to finish at about 9pm. Email AllyParkN10@gmail.com to book a place and we send location and other details.
The Friends joined TCV BAT South in digging up oak saplings from below the Rose Garden and from the Butterfly Meadow and then replanting them (picture left) to help re-form the line of oaks running down into the old Deer Enclosure. This is in order preserve and re-create an old line of oaks along a field edge predating the park's existence.
In the afternoon, we planted some saplings to fill in gaps along the border of the pitch and putt area. (lower picture)
We had our annual stall at the Ally Pally Farmers's Market. The weather was quite kind to us with only a splash of rain. We recruited several new members and sold over 30 of our 2020 calendars.
The sellers were fortified by some left over mulled wine and mince pies.
We enjoyed our day at the market, a great asset to the park.
We took our normal seasonal stroll around The Grove hearing about work in the spinney opposite the Park Visitor Centre including a new pond. Also new trees are being planted in the park with help of the Mayor's Fund including a Japanese Red Cedar in The Grove.
After the short walk, we retired to the Park Visitor Centre for some festive mulled wine and mince pies.
The Conservation Volunteers
December 2019
This is where it gets very complicated..... There are actually 3 different TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) groups working in the Park this month. TCV BAT South are working for 3 more days (9th, 15th and 16th) and are coming over specially to plant trees in the Park. The new addition is TCV BAT North who used to be our regular group. They are based in Railway Fields near Harringay Green Lanes station. Their job was to start the laying of a hedge between the old racecourse and the cricket pitch. (left) The existing overgrown shrubby trees were cut back and layed. .... and what does BAT mean? Biodiversity Action Group.
Our usual TCV group, BAT East, are due to work this month on the 21st, 22nd and 28th. They worked for four days in the park last month clearing snowberry and cherry laurel from an area to the Southwest of the Paddock Car Park (above the Farmers' Market location on the Lower Path). Then several medium sized trees were removed from the area and a dead hedge constructed. At the same time a lot of the ivy and bramble was removed from the ground hoping to encourage the reappearance of wild flowers in this area. (picture left)
Dates for December to follow... 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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