London Road Playing Fields provide an excellent example of how the local community’s enthusiasm may be harnessed to create an attractive park with nature as one of the main ingredients. Following a successful campaign to save the fields from a proposed by-pass, the Friends of London Road Playing Fields worked with the Council in the early 1990s to create a new park. Volunteers planted over 2,500 small trees and hundreds of daffodils, crocuses and bluebells, and a pond was created in the western corner near the railway line.
Local Wildlife Site
Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
London Road Playing Fields
Borough: Merton
Grade: Borough Grade II
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 6.33 ha
Description
Wildlife
The trees which pre-date the park are found alongside Church Path and Baron Walk. Near Church Path grow mature field maple and horse-chestnut trees, and the younger plantings include spindle, rowan and hornbeam. The creamy flowers of guelder-rose can be seen in the summer.Along the western side by Baron Walk, the belt of trees and scrub is rather wider. English elm, wild cherry, pedunculate oak, ash, elder, hybrid black-poplar, hawthorn and blackthorn are found here. The shady area beneath the trees is dominated by ivy, but elsewhere further plants such as hedge bedstraw, cow parsley, ground-ivy and hawkweed oxtongue add themselves to the mix.Facilities
Playground; sculptures/ monuments;
Field maple in flower © Mike Waite
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