Homes built around Gardens

A neighbourhood walk taking in Queen’s Park, Paddington Rec and the new garden at Mason & Fifth by the Grand Union Canal.

Sunday 14th September 2025, 1pm

Garden at Mason & Fifth Canal side

On a summer’s evening people come out to the parks of London for all kinds of activities, like sport and exercise.

In Queen’s Park in Brent there’s football, tennis, golf; walking of course; plus table tennis, parallel bars and kids on bikes. Queen’s Park is great for families and folk of all ages and our walk will take in its full sweep.

Then we navigate through high rise blocks from the 1960’s and 70’s which are being replaced with new towers and new shared garden space, like Woodhouse Urban Park, with mixed results. You can see the effort, the intent; unfortunately you can see the litter.

In Paddington Recreation Ground there’s a cricket match in progress, tennis, a gym, hockey and hundreds of runners circling the track. They’ve come to a good place for motivation – plaques on the wall commemorate the regime of Roger Bannister who ‘broke’ the four minute mile and trained in this park, and other athletes.

Then we search out a brand new garden on the banks of the Grand Union Canal, a development by Mason and Fifth. This private development seems more successful – outdoor seats warmed by a westerly sun, a gym, a restaurant, and a cinema showing Steve Shaw’s Meanwhile Gardens as it was 40 years ago.

£8 ticket

Meeting place: Queen’s Park station, Salusbury Rd, London NW6 6NL
Arrive by train: Bakerloo line, or straight from Euston on the Lioness overground
Date & time: Sunday Sept 14th 2025, 1 pm
Distance: 3.3 miles
End point: Mason & Fifth, Woodfield Road, canal side, nearest tube Westbourne Park
Map: Komoot map click to view, Google map
Contact: email tim.ingram-smith@outlook.com mobile: 077932 00932
Cost: £8 per adult walker PAY HERE https://paypal.me/parktopark

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Gallery

Queen’s Park quiet corner

Parallel bars

Queen’s Park woodland walk

Queen’s Park bandstand

Queen’s Park golf

Woodhouse Urban Park, a landscape award winner in 2016

Paddington Recreation Ground running track. We walked through Paddington Rec on the London Spiral, back in 2016.

It’s not all sport, plenty of people are just enjoying the evening sun, seated on the grass or on the benches, taking it in.

Paddington Recreation Ground red planting

There’s a wide range of trees in Tamplin Mews park – here we can see plane, whitebeam, pear, pissardii plum, fastigiate oak, and a yellow gate.

At the long jump a fellow has pulled back the tarpaulin and is practicing his triple jump. He’s got bounce, he’s got strength in his legs.

How far are you trying to reach? I ask. Fifteen, sixteen he says. Just a little bit short of Jonathan Edwards’ 18 metres 39, I say, trying to show my knowledge. 18 metres 29, he corrects me, then adds, There hasn’t been a jump near 18 metres this year. What’s worse there hasn’t been a British jump over 16 metres this year. I wonder for a moment why that’s worse. I need to fix my technique, he says. It’s a mental thing.

This walk is from Queen’s Park through Paddington Recreation Ground to Mason & Fifth Canal Side.