The Park Visitor Centre (i) is between the Grove car park and the cafe in the Grove. Open Sundays and first Saturday of each month from 2pm till 4pm. Maps, leaflets, quizzes and drawing materials for children.
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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
Our 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
Conservation Work in the Park
Tuesday 28th October from 10:00am to 12:30pm
We will working in the Grove this month.
Bring gardening gloves if you have them, although we have spares to lend. No special skills needed and refreshments provided.
Meet at the Park Visitor Centre email AllyParkN10@gmail.com for details.
Autumn Fungi Walk
Saturday 8th November from 1pm to 2:30pm
Our autumn fungi is back again to be led again by Clifford Davy who will enchant us with the gorgous fruiting bodies of the fungi of our park as well as giving us insights into their life cycle and effect on trees.
Email AllyParkN10@gmail.com stating number of places required and we will send you the meeting place.
Family Art in the Park
Sunday 16th November from 10:30am to 11:30am
Join Katy Fattuhi. with your children and be creative!
To book places, email AllyParkN10@gmail.com with numbers of adults and children.
Conservation Work in the Park
Tuesday 18th November from 10:00am to 12:30pm
We will probably be working in the Anthill Meadow this month with bramble removal a priority. For more details watch out for our newsletter or email AllyParkN10@gmail.com
Art in the Park
Thursday 20th November from 10:00am to 11:00am
Monthly free art sessions led by Katy Fattuhi.
For more information and to find out the meeting place, email AllyParkN10@gmail.com.
RECENT EVENTS IN THE PARK
Members' Walk: 12th October
The walk started in the Redston Field looking many different galls on oak leaves in the Redston Field as well as a large cluster of moth eggs on another oak leaf (pictured left).
We walked out of field and saw an American thorn tree with the growth of the common hawthorn rootstock which has very different looking leaves.
We continued to the right looking at the trees towards the North View Road entrance. On the way, we spotted a colourful patch of golden scalycap (also pictured).
We walked up the path towards the lower road and were struck by the prodigous growth of Caucasian wingnuts.
To take a new route, we walked through the woodland in an westerly direction looking at mostly trees as we went. After crossing a path, we came to a very large red oak fallen in the woodland before exiting and heading towards the Garden Centre where we finished off by looking at nice example of a zoned rosette fungus at the base of a tree.
Art in the Park: 25th September
It was a beautiful, golden September morning on the South Slope for our meet up.
We usually go for more hidden spots and have in fact never met so close to the palace building. It gave the braver amongst us a chance to have a go at the challenge of sketching the palace’s architectural details and the distant architecture on the skyline ahead. In between there were oak trees and acorns for those of us who like to home in on the natural dimension of the park.
Conservation Work: 23rd September
On a very pleasant sunny, but cool, September morning, 10 of us, shears in hand, cut the grassy sward in the central area of the Anthill Meadow. We did this to reveal the many yellow field ant mounds there and give them a chance to grow their own community of plants.
We will seed that area with yellow rattle in November to control the grasses and thus allow more flowering plants to grow and therefore more butterflies and insects to thrive. This summer has seen a good butterfly count in the park, partly due to our efforts in the Anthill Meadow. Thanks to David of O’Conner for the lift back to the PVC.
Bat Walk: 8th September
After Gordon’s introduction to bats and bat detectors, an enthusiastic group of 15 people had to wait patiently for some time for the bats to appear. Perhaps they were deterred by the very bright sky.
Eventually, however, to Gordon's relief, the bat detectors started clicking and the bats were soon very visible swooping over our heads and through the trees. All the group were thrilled to see these tiny creatures zipping around changing direction in an instant, intent on just one thing – catching their breakfast of small insects.
London Metropolitan Brass Community Band: 7th September
As usual our Music in the Grove programme concluded with a concert by the Community Band of London Metropolitan Brass. Another large crowd enjoyed the customary mix of numbers from Glen Miller through Frank Sinatra to A-ha’s “Take On Me” – the latter a chance for the drummer to be heard. Hopefully the larger audiences, and the good weather, will return next summer for another series of mellow concerts in the Grove.
Autumn Bird Walk: 7th September
We started in the Grove on a warm and sunny morning, and were lucky to see a stock dove and a wood pigeon side by side, allowing us to note the stock dove’s smaller size, shorter tail and dark eyes.
Walking down the slopes below the palace, we paused to watch the male and female peregrines on the mast. In the tall birches in the south-west corner of the pitch & putt, we saw a showy spotted flycatcher and, excitingly, a more elusive pied flycatcher (photo © Lucia Pino-Garcia).
The Cricket Scrub was rather quiet, save for a preening greenfinch. Finishing up at the Conservation Pond, a Cetti’s warbler sang loudly if invisibly, and a clouded yellow butterfly fluttered past, only the second recorded in the park this year.
Conservation Work in the Grove: 21st August
Since the laid hedge in the Spinney had become very overgrown and scruffy looking, eight of us worked in pairs on either side of the hedge, weaving and tying in new growth and trimming those flyaway bits – a bit like a haircut!
It was a lovely morning to be working outdoors, with a surprising amount of birdsong: nuthatch, particularly, members of the tit family, and a woodpecker. A rather worn speckled wood butterfly floated by. We had admiring comments and encouragement from passers-by, which was a bonus. It was a lovely day to be out. Rubén came and had a chat with us. Everyone’s sorry to see him go.
Swingbusters in the Grove: 17th August
On a beautiful sunny day, The Swing Busters trio drew the largest crowd we have had for Music in the Grove – 150, including children.
Most of the audience weren’t born when many of the tunes were first performed, but there is a familiarity and nostalgia that gives the music its appeal. And although we couldn’t compete with Tony Engle’s delivery of all the lyrics, we could at least join in with the chorus: “Everything stops for tea”. Tony alternated between various saxes, and with Steve Benaim’s steady rhythm guitar and vocals and Martin Appleby’s bass, the trio provided the audience with a marvellous afternoon.
Family Bug Hunt: 17th August
A lovely sunny day to look for bugs.
A lot of flower crab spiders found as well as other small spiders and red spider mites. Several different species of ladybirds - harlequin, 7 spot, 16 spot and 24 spot were captured before being released. Some black coloured aphids and a green veined white butterfly were also seen.
Pictured left is a 16 spot ladybird.
Members' Nature Walk: 16th August
A possible look at butterflies and other insects was abandoned due to the overcast conditions.
Instead we looked several trees and a striking Shaggy Bracket fungus on the weeping ash tree, but above all we searched for galls.
We found galls caused mites and sawflies as well as plenty caused by wasps including the three seen on the picture to the left. In order of prevalence, silk button, common spangle and smooth spangle galls.
Family Art in the Park: 10th August
Katy worked with a small group of families to help them make their own clay fossils in a quiet summery corner of the Spinney. Children and grown-ups used textures from nature to imprint into clay, then painted them to look like fossils while talking about how it is all down to fossils that we know about ancient plants and animals.
London Metropolitan Brass Senior Band: 3rd August
Despite rain foreshortening their programme, the band entertained a hardy audience with tunes ranging from Holst’s “Fantasia on the Dargason” to “Wand’rin’ Star” – that not easily forgotten number “sung” by Lee Marvin in the film Paint Your Wagon.
Fortunately the band’s rendering was much more tuneful. In the interval the latest group of LMB beginners gave their first public performance, and a creditable job they made of it. LMB do a tremendous job of loaning instruments and teaching beginners, which brings new blood into the brass band community. More pictures here.
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