Borough of Ealing Park Trail

West London has some beautiful parks, and a community of artists

Sunday 8th September 2024, 1pm

Boston Manor House beyond a mighty cedar bough

September is the month when the artists and painters of the Borough of Ealing put on their BEAT Art Trail and invite you to their studios and galleries to see and buy their latest work: https://ealingbeat.org.uk/.

Ahead of the BEAT fair we’ve arranged our own trail through the parks of Ealing, taking in Haven Green, Walpole Park, Lammas Park, Blondin Park and Boston Manor Park.

Ealing is a pleasant town on what feels like the western outskirts of London but is still miles inside the edge, where house prices are as high as anywhere in the metropolis, and plenty of attractive parks are probably part of that. The parks are often the grounds of stately homes held then by a few and now open to the many.

In Walpole Park (info leaflet PDF) one mighty cedar, which has framed the view from the house for over two hundred years, has succumbed to disease, limbs have fallen – only recently I saw them on the grass – and now just a trunk remains.

Lammas Park burdock

In Lammas Park swales have been dug to capture rainfall and protect from sudden flooding. They’re experimenting with grooming less and letting the grass grow, alongside burdock, purple loosestrife, and wild umbellifers.

Similar in Blondin Park, some parts are mown close for sport but part of the allotment has been offered up to the regenerating power of rewilding. We met Linda Massey and heard how the community pavilion was funded and took shape, then we walked through the orchard and tasted the sharp fresh apples.

Blondin Park is named for the tightrope walker Charles Blondin who lived nearby. This American Heritage article captures the excitement and trepidation of his high-wire stunts over the roaring waterfalls.

Photo by Jonny Baker of slackrope walker in Blondin Park, part of an in-park exhibition curated by Angelika Berndt

Boston Manor Park hosts a mighty Cedar of Lebanon, possibly the largest in greater London.

Cedar planted in 1754, putting this tree at over 270 years old.

Boston Manor Park field

Beneath and beyond the M4 motorway which flies through the park like a manifest spaceship, lies a broad expanse of flat ground, old flood plain, which seems at first rather exposed – walkers don’t much explore the field but take it in with a glance from the margin – these peninsulas present an opportunity for some new park ideas –

the first is to mow a pattern into the field, there is already a pathway strip, an idea which flourished briefly on football pitches
a second is to plant, or rather encourage from the seeds already there, modernist stripes of wild flowers and grasses

Something that brings head-height interest to visitors, visible to an audience in the GSK offices and in vehicles of all kinds flying by, could elevate this area of what is a wonderful park.

£8 ticket

Meeting place: outside Ealing Broadway station
Take the tube: Elizabeth, District, Central tubes and main line from Paddington
Date & time: Sunday September 8th 2024, 1 pm
Distance: 3.6 miles
End point: Brentford station
Map: Komoot click to view
Contact: email tim.ingram-smith@outlook.com mobile: 077932 00932
Cost: £8 per adult walker PAY HERE https://paypal.me/parktopark