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 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.
Car Parking Charges Now In Force
Visits of up to 30 minutes are free for everyone, and Blue Badge holders are not charged at all. Full details are on the palace’s car-park charging FAQs page.
Green Flag Award Retained
The park has won its 16th Green Flag Award (and its Green Heritage Award). Head to the palace’s website to read a list of facts about the park – and to spot the one that’s made up.
POSTPONED Friends autumn Bird Walk
Sorry we have had to postpone our autumn bird walk until Sunday, 17th September.
Still fancy a bird walk in Alexandra Park on Sunday, 3rd September? The London Bird Club are running one starting at 10am from Wood Green station. More details here.
Art in the Park for families
Sunday 10th September from 10:30am to 11:30am
Join us for a creative morning immersed in the nature of Alexandra Park, where we'll have lots of fun discovering how to use natural materials as paintbrushes. We will experiment and use our imaginations to create paintings and drawings in unusual ways. It might get messy!
We'll discover how varied the grasses and 'weeds' of the park actually are when we take time to look more closely at them and we'll notice how things are changing as we get into late summer.
This will be a relaxed, informal session for families to enjoy some creative time together in nature. Children of all ages are welcome and parents/carers/grandparents are encouraged to join in the fun as much as they would like to! There should be something for everyone.
Facilitated by local artist and Art in the Park co-ordinator, Katy Fattuhi.
To book your place, please email us (mention the number of people you are booking for and the children's ages)
Meeting location will be confirmed with you closer to the event.
London Metropolitan Brass Community Band
Sunday 10th September from 2pm to 4pm
Be sure to catch the last of the summer concerts in the Grove.....
Autumn Bat Walk
Monday 11th September from 7:15pm
Come to the park to see these fascinating creatures appear as the light fades.
Email [allyparkn10@gmail.com] with the number of places you’d like, and please include your phone number so that we can get in touch if we have to cancel due to the weather.
Conservation Work Party in the Anthill Meadow
Tuesday 12th September from 9:30am to Noon
First session of two this month.
No special skills needed. We’ll be cutting the grass on the western side. Bring gardening gloves if you have them, although we have spares to lend. Refreshments provided.
Meet in the Anthill Meadow.
For more details email AllyParkN10@gmail.com
Autumn Wildflower Walks
Saturday 16th September starting at 11am and 2:30pm
Let’s have a look at the flowers that are out in early autumn. We will have two walks starting at 11am and 2:30pm. Please email AllyParkN10@gmail.com stating which time and how many people will attend and we will give the meeting place.
Bird Walk
Sunday 17th September from 8am to 10am
Our rearranged autumn bird walk will start in The Grove Car Park at 8am. Gareth will try and find us some of the seasonal migrants passing through park as well as pointing out some of our resident birds.
All welcome, no booking required.
Conservation Work Party in the Anthill Meadow
Thursday 21st September from 10:00am to 12:30pm
Second session of two this month.
No special skills needed. We’ll be cutting the grass on the western side. Bring gardening gloves if you have them, although we have spares to lend. Refreshments provided.
Meet in the Anthill Meadow.
For more details email AllyParkN10@gmail.com
Art in the Park
Thursday 21st September from 10:00am to Noon
Monthly informal meet ups for anyone who would like to spend time enjoying looking closer at nature and making new friends.
Do you fancy getting more creative in the new year? Spending more time relaxing in the park through the seasons? Our monthly Art in the Park group, hosted by local artist Katy Fattuhi, is open to anyone who would like to join. We have people who sketch, paint and photograph. No experience is necessary, but
To quote one of the group: 'What could be nicer than sitting in a gorgeous place, in sunshine, drawing with such lovely companions!'
Sessions are free, but you do need to book a place and ideally bring along some materials and something to sit on (if this is not possible please speak to Katy as basics can be provided).
Each month we meet in a different part of the park and enjoy noticing what is happening in nature at that time of year. Look out for future dates on the monthly Newsletter.
If you would like to find out more about the sessions or book a place for Thursday please email allyparkn10@gmail.com
RECENT EVENTS IN THE PARK
Anthill Meadow Conservation work: 22nd August
On a lovely sunny morning, 11 of us cut back bramble leaders, revealing the terrific crop of blackberries. It was hot work but much was achieved with a practised wielding of secateurs. There were still several butterflies flitting about, including the male common blue pictured (whose female is deceptively similar to the brown argus – see ‘Nature notes’ above). Many birds were seen and heard, including a flock of mixed tits (long-tailed, great and blue), with blackcaps, willow warblers and chiffchaffs amongst them. And there were still many flowers, the most plentiful being the pale lemon flowers of the hoary ragwort. We were sustained by some wonderful apple flapjacks that one of our number had cooked to share with us.
Tree Walk for Beginners: 20th August
Due to illness, this was postponed by 24 hours and a replacement walk leader was found although most the information was supplied by Robyn who was due to lead the walk. We highlighted four trees field maple (pictured left - pictured taken by Alessandra Rossetti), hawthorn, blackthorn and ash.
Ash was used for chassis of old Morgan cars and field maple was a specialist wood especially good for bridges of violins.
Hawthorn with its red haws (the official name its berries) and blackthorn with its dark purple sloes were on show for our walk from Nightingale Lane to the North View Road entrance. We heard about how the blackthorn flowers come out first (before its own leaves) then the hawthorn ("May") comes out later in the year.
In order to help narrow down the identification of some of the trees, we also emphasised the different leaf/branch attachment types of the trees using this crib sheet.
Family Bug Hunt: 12th August
The threatened rain held off and four families enjoyed searching for bugs and butterflies. Two different species of butterfly were found small white and speckled wood as well a cricket and a grasshopper as well many true bugs including an immature green shieldbug. A large yellow underwing moth was caught together with many small spiders and mirid bugs. A couple of small ladybirds (22-spots) as well as three larger one (harlequins). A fullish list of what was found can be inspected here.
Members' Nature Walk: 11th August
We were lucky with the weather for our evening nature walk, warm and pleasant. We looked at the trees in the Redston Field including the remaining Italian Poplars, Oak trees (one with an old oak processionary moth nest), a Columella Elm (not quite the tree ordered!) and evidence of the aptly named Elm zigzag sawfly (pictured left).
Next to the field, we inspected the settling pond - used to stop flooding of nearby houses and to filter out any noxious materials running down from the Fairground/Paddock car parks.
We took an off-path look for an exotic fern (Western Sword Fern) which has made its home in the park.
Looking just off the paddock car park, we spotted a tomato plant happily growing.
We finished off walking along the Lower Path trying to get a view of the noisy sparrowhawks........
Butterfly Walk: 29th July
We had a good turnout – 14 people – and mostly good butterfly weather (sunny and windless), though it was breezy and cloudy at times. From the Gas Hut Dee led us along the Lower Road, spotting plenty of butterflies on the brambles, including gatekeepers and holly blues. We then went into the Anthill Meadow, at which point it clouded over a bit. In spite of this we saw a red admiral, a small copper, meadow browns and more gatekeepers. The ragwort and bramble were popular with all of them. Finally we went over to the fenced patch of creeping thistle on the Old Racecourse. There we saw small, large and green-veined whites (the latter pictured left by Tony Jakeman). There were many gatekeepers there too.
Conservation Work in the Spinney: 27th July
On a rather dismal and dank morning, 12 of us set to work to fight back the brambles in the Spinney (the woodland at the edge of the Grove). It felt more like battling in a primeval jungle, with the forest of briars and hogweed skeletons, and to top it all there were many froglets jumping around our feet. We found a buff-tailed bumblebee nest in the depths of a bramble, as well as very delicate, small white mushrooms on some woody debris – pinwheel mushroom (picture by Helen Odozi), common in deciduous woodland. We did make very good progress, reducing the bramble bank and improving the habitat for the snowdrops and scilla in spring.
Please do remember to check out the Anthill Meadow this month, especially on a sunny day – the knapweed, willowherb and ragwort are in flower, and the butterflies seem to be doing well this year, despite the damp conditions.
Swingbusters: 23rd July
Back for another year. The weather looked very dodgy just before the start with rain spotting, but as soon as the music started the rain stopped and eventually the sun came out. Swingbusters entertained us with great tunes including My Baby just cares for me, Black Coffee, Night Owl, and Java Jive.
Wildflower Walks: 22nd July
We started by moving across Redston Field at botanist’s speed (which may well be slower than snail’s pace) because there was so much to look at: dock seeds under a lens, the different growth forms of broad-leaved plantain out in the open (flat against the ground) and in amongst other plants (upright), and the similarity between bramble and wild rose flowers, indicating that they are indeed in the same family. We picked up speed to get to the back of the Cricket Pitch to look at a few members of the pea family (goat’s rue, white clover, red clover) and a few of the daisy family (hoary ragwort, bristly oxtongue, creeping thistle), but very few actual daisies. The rain held off until the end of the walk, at which point we sped right up to get home.
Art in the Park: 20th July
A lovely summery session in a quiet and lesser known but beautiful part of the park – just to the east of Pitch & Putt. We spread out along an avenue of horse chestnuts. The sunlight caught the long grass as the crickets hummed and we all very felt very peaceful in our little 'spot in the country' in the metropolis. Members of the group tried a range of drawing approaches this time, including lots of tiny sketches, with notes on sounds heard while drawing, and bold rubbings of a tree bark.
Palace Band: 9th July
On a pleasantly warm afternoon, the Palace Band performed a short and lively concert of familiar music, with an opera piece specially included for Ciro, who serenades his customers in the Grove Café with opera arias. Unfortunately he was on holiday that day!
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