Wood Green is green
- Greening Wood Green
- Community Parklet
- Ducketts Common improvements
- Westbury Banks Nature Reserve
- Wood Green Library Garden
- Penstock Tunnel
- Wolves Lane Nursery
- Enhancing Crescent Garden
Greening Wood Green
Haringey Council and our partners are investing in making our places better so our communities can live healthy lives, work and play.
The quality of the local environment is very important to the community and it is the reason that many people live here. We want Wood Green to be a place where everyone can access the green and open spaces, where people are active and live longer, healthier lives and a place where people feel safe and secure in their own homes and neighbourhoods.
Wood Green has an incredibly strong community of residents and business who are committed to improving the area, these include Future Wood Green and GrowN22, Parkside Malvern Residents Association and the Wolves Lane Centre, amongst others.
Haringey Council have also secured funding to deliver improvements along the routes connecting Station Road, the High Road and the area around the Chocolate Factory and Coburg Road. Work will include the refurbishment of the entrance to Alexandra Park at the Penstock Tunnel and investment in green infrastructure, public realm, public art, lighting and signage in various locations.
Community Parklet
Haringey’s first community Parklet in Noel Park is now complete!
GrowN22 C.I.C. (external link), in partnership with Haringey Council, were awarded £25,000 to spend on the project by the Mayor of London’s Grow Back Greener Fund.
The Parklet was co-designed by Noel Park Primary School Eco-Council students with input from local residents, and it is both a public space and an educational resource for the neighbourhood.
There are also permanent public realm improvements to enhance the new use of the space in cycle lanes and safer, accessible crossing installed.
The Parklet includes, pollinating plants, two sapling trees, and lockable seed drying seed library cabinets for community use. The on-site tree nursery helps nurture an eco-supply chain with other urban greening projects in Wood Green.
The Parklet is complementary to the School Streets programme and there is an air quality monitor on site. By helping to reduce car parking and idling, we can make the air cleaner for everyone.
Many thanks to fabricator's Meristem and Building Bloqs for building and installing the timber modular elements of the Parklet.
A naming competition is currently underway with Noel Park Primary School students, led by GrowN22 - stay tuned on GrowN22's Twitter (external link) for updates on the result.
Get Involved!
GrowN22 are looking for community volunteers to help take care of the Parklet.
There is also a new community notice board for promoting local events and opportunities; if you would like to be part of it or you have ideas for ways to use the space please contact GrowN22 (external link).
Project background
We worked with local greening group GrowN22, Jan Kattein Architects and residents and community groups to transform the Gladstone Avenue and Vincent Road junction into a neighbourhood parklet.
The parklet brings greenery and wildlife to this underused space, and opportunities to connect with nature through regular workshops and activities.
Fantasy garden drawings and model gardens
A vision for this space was developed with Noel Park Primary School pupils through site investigations, planting workshops, drawings and models.
On Wednesday 21 April 2021, the school council from Noel Park Primary School participated in a design workshops facilitated by Jan Kattein Architects and GrowN22.
The 20 students from years 1 to 6, were asked to imagine a 'fantasy garden', visualising ideas for the parklet site with colourful drawings. The students also made miniature gardens with recycled materials and planted seeds.
The students then visited the parklet site with Jan Kattein Architects and GrowN22 to discuss their ideas and draw them life-size on the ground with chalks. Some of these wonderful ideas and concepts have been incorporated into the design of the parklet.
You can see their designs in the Fantasy garden drawings and model garden Flickr gallery (external link).
Ducketts Common improvements
Haringey Council have been working with the Friends of Ducketts Common to improve the green and open space at Turnpike Lane.
The boundary railings and main entrance archway have been repainted and railings at the northern edge realigned. The path is being patch repaired and upgraded bins and benches have been installed.
To make the space more cycling friendly, a contra-flow cycling scheme for Hampden Road has been created, with a new raised table and entrance improvements to the Common at the Hampden Road/Willoughby Road junction.
The council is also working with owners of the Roj Café kiosk to deliver an extension to the kiosk to create an indoor seating area and toilet. This will allow customers to sit and enjoy food and drink from the café all year round, and help to activate the north end of the Common.
Westbury Banks Nature Reserve
Over the past couple of years, social enterprise company GrowN22 and volunteers from the community have worked hard to create the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve. Just off the busy Westbury Road in Wood Green, it’s 150 metres long and comprises four different banks boasting a variety of plants, a walkway, a rockery, a pond and bug hotels, with much more to come.
Project manager Luke Newcombe of GrowN22 said:
“The possibilities are endless. Before we came along it was pretty much a jungle and the amount of fly-tipping here was just unbelievable - we cleared out three tonnes’ worth! Two years on and we’ve done all this work and have created a great log staircase for people to walk down into the reserve.”
The reserve is a Noel Park Big Local initiative managed by GrowN22. The Noel Park community was given money to celebrate what is great about Noel Park so residents decided to provide the initial funding for Grow N22 to start work on the reserve.
- To find out more or volunteer visit the Grow N22 website (external link)
Wood Green Library Garden
Future Wood Green, Wood Green’s Business Improvement District (BID), has been awarded funding through the Mayor of London’s Greener City Fund Community Grant Scheme to transform the front of the Library area on the High Road. Working with the council, the BID submitted an application for funding to create a new community garden outside Wood Green Library.
The idea for this project came from feedback from both businesses and the public. Both felt the planters outside the Library could be significantly improved… and now they will be!
The BID is partnering with local social Enterprise Grow N22 to create this new green space.
Penstock Tunnel
Penstock Tunnel sits under the Great North Eastern Railway line, and together with the pathways at each end of the tunnel, connects Alexandra Park and Wood Green Cultural Quarter. Currently, the tunnel suffers from water ingress, and the pathways at either end feel unsafe and unattractive.
Haringey Council are working with specialist designers We Made That to improve the tunnel and its entrances and approaches to draw people into the heart of Wood Green from the west of the borough. Potential improvements include drainage, signage, lighting, landscaping along with integrated delivery of artwork as part of the project. For more information visit the dedicated Penstock Tunnel improvements webpage.
Wolves Lane Nursery
Volunteers are helping transform an old nursery and garden centre into a thriving community food hub and local attraction.
The Wolves Lane Centre in Wood Green is an impressive complex of glasshouses and outdoor growing space dating back to the 1960s. Two years ago it was taken over by a coalition dedicated to restoring the centre with an ambition to making it a hub for growing and distributing food. As a result, it now houses various sustainable businesses such as Edible London but, more than this, there are plans to restore the Palm House, cactus house and café as visitor attractions. “The potential is endless,” said retired botanist and Wolves Lane volunteer, Pamela Harling.
Pamela is one of a green-fingered army of volunteers who help with the maintenance and restoration.
To find out more about Wolves Lane visit Wolves Lane website (external link) or email volunteer@wolveslane.org
Giant squirrels in Wood Green 
Well done to Parkside Malvern Residents Association for bringing forward a squirrel mural in Martins Walk.
The mural was designed by artist Krishna Malla. You’d be ‘nuts’ not to go and see it!
Enhancing Crescent Gardens
Major landscape improvements for Crescent Gardens the greenspace on the High Road, opposite the Civic Centre have been completed.
In the improved park there are a series of ‘rain gardens’ to collect run-off from the adjacent roads, Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) in the form of circular basin features, swales (open drainage channels) to carry water between the basin and rain gardens and new tree planting and meadow style planting.
Alongside reducing the risk of flooding, these improvements will help enhance bio-diversity, prevent both air and water pollution and re-invigorate the park space for people of all ages to explore and enjoy.
These improvements were completed in March 2019.