So how’s your lockdown going? If you’re anything like us, you’re on the lookout for some variety as to how and where to take your government-sanctioned exercise, so we turned to our team of talented guides and asked for some suggestions from their own local areas accompanied with a few historical pearls to help you enjoy these places a little more.

Here’s our 10 favourites, enjoy your walks – always remembering social distancing, of course!

Kennington Park by Michael Duncan

Kennington Park makes up a part of what was once Kennington Common. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was the South London equivalent of Tyburn. More than one hundred people were executed on the site of what is now St Mark’s Church. Kicking off with the burning at the stake of a woman who murdered her husband, locals in search of entertainment later gathered to watch highwaymen and Jacobite rebels hang.

Now crowds go to The Oval nearby to watch cricket but it was on the Common itself that one of the earliest first class matches was played in 1724.

But crowds were not always welcome. In 1848 the Chartists held a rally to demand working class male suffrage. The organisers claimed there were half a million there, their detractors a mere twelve-thousand. Either way, the vicar of St Mark’s took a dim view and led a campaign to convert the Common into a park.

The Common was enclosed in 1852. The plane trees you see today were planted and a couple of cottages known as the Prince Consort Lodge was dismantled and moved from the Crystal Palace Exhibition. These then revolutionary cottages featured flushing water closets and three bedrooms. But future versions, built in cities as far away as St Petersburg and Helsinki did not feature the money saving hollow bricks that were used for the prototypes.

Near the Lodge, part of the 1965 thriller The Ipcress File, featuring local boy Michael Caine, was filmed. Another local boy, Charlie Chaplin, took his first girlfriend on a date here. Today locals work out, run and stroll, most of them unaware of its rich history.

Walpole Park by Alan Fortune

Walpole Park was opened to the public in 1901, two years after Ealing Council had bought it, along with Pitzhanger Manor, for £40,000 from Sir Spencer Walpole. The council surveyor, Charles Jones, the architect of Ealing’s Gothic revivalist town hall, designed the park’s tree-lined avenues, paths and flower beds.

The back of the beautifully refurbished Pitzhanger Manor is visible on my lockdown walk through this lovely park. I often pause beside the ornate Grade II listed rustic bridge which has been there since before renowned architect Sir John Soane, the owner of the manor from 1801 to 1810, embellished it with carved faces and classical urns. From there I have an excellent view of the manor house and the park’s elegant landscaping. Soane used to fish in the nearby lake with his great friend, the renowned painter J.M.W.Turner. In those days the area was principally rural; the lake acted as a ha-ha to prevent sheep straying on to Soane’s property.

A recent lottery fund grant has enabled the recreation of many of the original features not only of Jones’ design for Walpole Park but of the area in Soane’s time. Breeding wildfowl have returned, new Regency-style flowerbeds have been planted, and the walled herb garden where Soane grew vegetables and herbs for his kitchen has been recreated. There is also a children’s education centre which houses a small apiary with an observation hive.

This all makes the park an extremely attractive place to visit, never more so than in July every year when marquees are erected for the Ealing Beer, Blues, Comedy and Jazz Festivals.

N.B. Walpole Park and Pitzhanger Manor feature in Alan’s walk entitled ‘Ealing: Queen of the Suburbs’, which he intends to resume when lockdown is over.

Hampstead Cemetery by Rhona Levene

My “special Covid place” is Grade II listed Hampstead Cemetery in West Hampstead. With over 60,000 graves, it’s a fascinating place to wander through.

Unlike Highgate this cemetery is free. One path leads you to an art deco monument to a young opera singer who died in childbirth in 1936. Her husband Cesare was Head Chef at the Cafe Royal but as an Italian national he was arrested and ended up as one of the survivors of the German U-Boat attack on the SS Arandora Star in July 1940. He was then taken to the Isle of Man until 1942 when he managed to get a job at Smithfield Market. He lost his life in a V2 rocket attack in March 1945.

Former Punch editor Alan Coren is buried there too – with a witty epitaph referencing his former residence in Cricklewood, the fictional home of The Goodies – Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Sadly, the latter recently died from COVID-19.

As a teaser to encourage you to explore this open space – see if you can find the graves of the following people when you visit.

Kate Greenaway, artist and children’s book author.

Joseph Lister, pioneer of antiseptic surgery.

Albert and Horace Short, aircraft engineers and brothers.

Dame Gladys Cooper, actress.

Marie Lloyd, music hall artist.

A couple of other graves which are harder to find are those of Louise Day, whose epitaph is in Pitman’s shorthand, members of the Forte hotel dynasty, and the ventriloquist buried with his dummy “Jim”.

I hope you can come and visit soon. Maybe we can wander around together and celebrate our return to normal life.

Bushy Park by Chris Firmin

Covering 1,100 acres, Bushy Park is the second largest Royal Park in London. It was acquired in 1514 by Cardinal Wolsey, who then gave it to Henry VIII to use as hunting grounds. It was later opened to the public following Henry’s death in 1547.

The centrepiece is a road running from the north main gate atTeddington to the south gate opposite Hampton Court Palace, lined by a magnificent avenue of horse chestnut trees laid out by Sir Christopher Wren for William III in 1714 . The road is straight apart from circling round Wren’s bronze fountain surmounted by a golden statue of Diana the huntress.

On either side, the park stretches out as far as you can see providing delightful running and walking country, its flatness providing huge vistas of semi natural habitats – grassland, scrub, woodland with many veteran trees. The paths criss-cross the park invite exploration.

To the west are watercourses built by the Duke of Northumberland to carry water to the grounds of Hampton Court Palace and Park. Two plantations enclose various trees, shrubs and flowers among ornamental water features with oriental style bridge. These areas are out of bounds to over 300 wandering deer which otherwise freely roam the park.

Bushy Park accommodates four separate cricket grounds around its margins but otherwise it is a park of informal recreational activity which enables people to savour its semi-rural landscapes.

Sopwell Nunnery by Rob Smith

At the end of my street in St Albans is a small park called Sopwell Nunnery, something of a misnomer as the building there is not a nunnery, but the remains of an uncompleted Tudor House.

Sopwell Nunnery, founded in 1140, was an offshoot of the Benedictine Abbey of St Albans. It’s alleged that Juliana Berners wrote The Boke of St Albans here in 1486, a book about hunting and fishing that also includes an early list of collective nouns – the first recorded use of ‘a gaggle of geese’ for instance. It is also one of the oldest known printed books in English written by a woman.

The nunnery was closed and demolished in 1540 and on its site a new house built for Sir Richard Lee, Henry VIII’s senior military engineer. Lee constructed the impressive defences around Berwick upon Tweed, and later built the Tudor defences of Portsmouth. Later in his career he held important positions in the court of Elizabeth I. Flush with his success, around 1575 he pulled down his existing house and started work on the building he called Lee Hall that is there today. The house, built with a large hall and a central courtyard, seems never to have been completed, and after his death some of the house was stripped to build Francis Bacon’s house. You can see Sir Richard Lee’s helmet in St Albans Museum.

Sopwell Nunnery now is on the route of the Ver Valley Walk, a path I would love to take you on when lockdown has finished.

Spring in Highgate and Queens Wood by Oonagh Gay

I’ve been spending my lockdown exercise in ancient woodland, watching spring unfold around me. I feel very fortunate to have this on my doorstep, less than six miles from Charing Cross.

Crouch End residents have benefited for decades from this ancient Middlesex forest known locally as Churchyard Bottom Wood, and once part of the Bishop of London’s hunting grounds. The term ‘forest’ was then a legal concept defining the area for hunts.

It was renamed Queens Wood in honour of Queen Victoria in 1898 and opened to the public. This new name was a celebration of its continued survival in the face of a two year battle with the Church Commissioners who favoured housing development. The wood was bought by the progressive Hornsey Local Board, following the successful purchase of Highgate Woods by the Corporation of London in 1886.

The main actor in both purchases was the leader of Hornsey, Henry Reader Williams, whose face is commemorated on the 1895 Crouch End clocktower. The two woods now straddle Muswell Hill Road – a green barrier south to Crouch End.

The predominantly oak and hornbeam Queen’s Wood has been less intensely managed than the more open Highgate Wood. Traces of coppicing remain, as well as the scarce wild service tree, indicative of ancient woodland.

As a four-year-old, I remember using the 1935 municipal paddling pool, now converted to a frog pond. So lockdown brings me a chance to reminisce while experiencing the healing sunshine.

Hampstead Heath Extension by Marilyn Greene

My Covid 19 wanderings regularly take me to Hampstead Heath Extension. Currently managed by the City of London Corporation, it was added to Hampstead Heath in 1907. The plot of 80 acres of open land consists of mature trees, hedgerows, small ponds and there are lovely vistas of Hampstead Garden Suburb which surrounds it on three sides.

In Medieval times the land had belonged to the leper hospital of St James (where St James’ Palace is now) and granted by King Henry VI to Eton College who endowed it with perpetual custody of the hospital. It had been farmland for Wyldes Farm since the 17th century.

Henrietta Barnett and her husband Cannon Barnett, the vicar of St Jude’s Whitechapel, had a weekend retreat on Spaniards Road overlooking these fields. In 1896 she heard of the proposal by the Charing Cross and Euston Railway to extent its deep underground line to Golders Green. Construction started in 1902 and a station began to be built (but was never completed) at nearby Northend. The Barnetts foresaw the unspoilt fields of Wyldes Farm being covered with bricks and mortar.

Drawing on the Commons registration movement, Henrietta Barnett was determined to save this countryside. She approached the Eton College trustees to negotiate an option to purchase it. Told she was “only a woman” and that she needed some men behind her, she organised the Heath Extension Council, which consisted of a syndicate of eight worthy men, and obtained an option to buy it for £48,000. Eventually the cost was reduced to £36,000. With Henrietta’s relentless campaigning and wealthy individuals acting as guarantors, the purchase was conducted in time to save the land from development.

Epping Forest by Joanna Moncrieff

Saved from development by the eponymous Act of 1878, Epping Forest was once part of the Great Forest of Waltham, a favourite hunting ground for the royals for some 600 years.

The forest has been managed since 1878 by the Corporation of London, whose acquisition of Aldersbrook Farm in 1853 for the City of London Cemetery gave the corporation commoner’s rights. It was thus allowed to bring proceedings against the various lords of the manor who were gradually enclosing the forest land.

Four years after the Act, on 6 May 1882, Queen Victoria visited High Beach via Chingford to dedicate “… this beautiful forest for the enjoyment of my people …”. It was the Lord Mayor who then, in her Majesty’s name “declared this beautiful forest open and dedicated to the delectation of the public for all time”.

Today Epping Forest covers just over 6,000 acres stretching from Manor Park to just north of Epping. Within this area exists a variety of places to wander through if you live close by. It is very easy to get off the beaten track and away from the crowds.

Apart from walking amongst the woodlands, there are wide open spaces such as Wanstead Flats and Chingford Plain as well as over 100 ponds within the forest. Most of these are manmade originating from old gravel pits, bomb craters etc., but over the years have blended into the forest and are now a natural part of it.

The Epping Forest Heritage Trust is a useful resource if you would like to find out more https://eppingforestheritagetrust.org.uk/

Morden Hall Park by Stephen Benton

The lovely Morden Hall Park was once a gentleman’s country estate. But no one famous lived here, there are no aristocratic connections, and the main house dating from the late 18th century is no tourist attraction. So it may come as a surprise that Morden Hall Park is a National Trust property. Why? Because it is a good example of a country estate owned by a rich family who made their money from trade. It has a late Victorian stable yard, a beautiful rose garden and the remnants of a walled garden, all set in extensive parkland. The park straddles the river Wandle and there are picturesque ruined arches set in the river to be viewed from the big house. It also has two historic watermills once used for grinding snuff.

The land had been part of the manor of Morden, owned by Westminster Abbey. With the dissolution of the monasteries, the manor was sold to two protestant City merchants. However, when catholic Queen Mary came along, they were sold rather quickly to the Garth family in 1558. The Garths owned the estate for over three hundred years and built the big house. They sold the property on to tobacco merchant Gilliat Hatfeild (sic) in the 1870s. The estate was then in the countryside but in the 1920s everything changed with the coming of the tube in 1926 and the building of the St Helier council estate. Hatfeild’s son gave the estate to the Trust in 1941 to save it from being built on, so we can all enjoy it today.

Claybury Park by Robin Rowles

My favourite green space for exercise during lockdown is Claybury Park in the London Borough of Redbridge. It was the grounds of Claybury Hospital, built in the nineteenth century. The hospital closed in 1997 and the northern part of the grounds was developed into high end housing. The southern part of the grounds was partly landscaped into a country park with stunning views of the City of London in the distance.

Claybury Park is accessed by the locally nicknamed ‘Black Gates’ and covers an impressive 68 hectares. Open grassland and bushes are flanked by a hard pathway, and this area is popular with joggers, dog walkers, or visitors out for a stroll, including local cats hunting field mice. Follow the path round its entire meandering route and you will have done very well indeed! At which point you may like to take a breather admiring the reedbed duckpond – no fishing allowed, it’s a conservation area. However, if you’re feeling particularly energetic, why not try out the open-air exercise machines in the play area, although regrettably these are temporarily closed?

If exploring ancient woodlands is your hobby, you’re in luck. Well-constructed woodland trails suggest interesting routes to trail the flora and fauna: stoats, weasels, foxes and squirrels live here. The trees are spectacular all year round, but the forest is also a concert hall. The branches and boughs of ancient oaks and hornbeams resound with the music of kestrels, skylarks, whitethroats, meadow pipit, reed buntings, goldfinch, blackbirds, and of course, my namesake the robin.

Stay safe all.

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