Kingsbury

This is the 24th station I have visited on the Jubilee line. I am now travelling quite a way out of London from where I live. My expectations of finding much of interest were quite low as I really am on the outskirts of London so I was expecting pleasant housing estates but not much more. But what I found was more of a rural idyll than a sprawling suburb.

The station opened in 1934 and services just the Jubilee line. It is small with just two platforms but surprisingly it had a toilet (always useful to know).

The station was built by the Metropolitan Line and as with the other stations on this line to Stanmore it became part of the Bakerloo Line from 1939 but transferred to the Jubilee Line in 1979.

With shops either side of the station I exited  onto a busy High Street. Although it was only 9.30 in the morning there was a strong smell of curry.

Not all shops had opened yet but the fruit and veg market was the most popular with queues already forming outside.

I could see a lot of greenery at the end of the High Street and decided to investigate. It turned out to be Roe Green Park. On first impressions I thought it was just an ordinary park until I noticed a sign for a walled Victorian garden. 

Just before I entered the wall garden I walked past this house known as Kingsbury Manor. The house was built in 1899 for the Duchess of Sutherland and her husband Sir Kaye Rellit. The house was then in the country and surrounded by farm land and was called 'The Cottage'. The 1901 census shows The Cottage had a cook and four other domestic staff and employed John James Watts (60) as the gardener alongside his son Rowland (23), the other gardener.

The House changed hands several times until George Cloke ( a builder) purchased it in 1929 and changed its name to Kingsbury Manor. At this time two gardeners were employed. The council purchased the House in 1938 to provide a maternity Hostel and later a home for the elderly. The garden became a Horticultural Training Ground. The house is now a school for children with Special Educational Needs.

The garden was originally the kitchen garden to the house and provided fruit, flowers and vegetables for the house. In 1989 Barn Hill Conservation Group were offered the garden and facilities which included the original workshop and tool store. It was also used by Brent Parks Ranger Service for a number of years. Since Barn Hill Conservation Group have looked after the garden, a number of grants have been awarded to pay for the renovation of the walls with traditional lime mortar; the fish pond; and the building of the Conservation centre now named The Cottage after the original name for Kingsbury Manor. The garden is now a community garden run by the community for the community.

Lucky for me, being a Saturday, it was open to the public.

The long border was packed with flowers giving it a very natural look. Bees and butterflies were enjoying the garden as were the birds which were singing their hearts out.

I particularly loved this flower bed full of poppies, lavender and roses.

Walking beneath the pergola the delightful perfume from the roses was intoxicating. As I was about to leave I noticed a small building with an open door. I was immediately welcomed inside. No sooner had I sat down for a chat with this wonderful group of volunteers when I was given a very welcome cup of tea.

This was the hub where the volunteers met to discuss the work they were going to tackle that day. There are about 60 volunteers altogether from the local area. A mixture of ages and cultures but all with the same enthusiasm and commitment to making the garden as beautiful as it could possibly be. 

The volunteers have also put together a Victorian display in another building within the garden.

I left the park via a different route going past this pre-school nursery.  John, one of the volunteers, told me that John Logie Baird, pioneer of television used this building for some of his experiments and in particular for the reception of the first television signals from the continent in 1929. There used to be a blue plaque on the wall and a small concrete monument in the garden, neither of which I could see due to the fencing around the building.

From the park I returned to the High Street which was now much busier as most of the shops had opened. The garden volunteers had mentioned a country park just the other side of the town centre so that was my target.

On the way I passed the supermarket Aldi which used to be the site of the Kingsbury Odeon which opened in 1939 and closed in 1972. The building was demolished and replaced with a supermarket firstly Sainsbury's and now Aldi's. All that remains of the original buildings are the cream tiled shops on either side.

I followed the very busy Fryent Way out of the town. The road went over the railway lines which take the underground trains into Kingsbury station.

I hadn't quite expected the park to be as large as it was and I felt I was in the middle of the countryside. Fryent Country Park is 100 hectares of old Middlesex farmland. The busy A4140 (Fryent Way) cuts through the park but you could soon forget the sound of the traffic and focus on the bird song and the buzzing of the bees. The meadows had deliberately been left to grow allowing numerous insects to enjoy the wild flowers.

The oldest feature of the park is this ancient trackway (Eldestrete Lane) once part of a route from Westminster to Hertfordshire. part of this track runs through an old hedge that dates back to Saxon times. The pattern of hedges and fields has survived almost unchanged since the 16th century.

The East of the park is predominantly made up of ancient hedgerows and hay meadows which are managed organically. The fields are irregularly shaped as they were cut out of the original woodland that comprised this area of Kingsbury in medieval times. They still retain their old names as shown on the map.

The west side of the park consists mostly of mature woodland and includes an original design by Humphry Repton a famous landscape architect and was planted in 1793. The park is an important site for nature conservation with its variety of habitats including the hedgerows, ponds, meadows and woodland and is home to many different species of flora and fauna.

Information from the notice board at the site.

I walked to the highest point in the park from where I could see the Wembley Arch in one direction and a view of the town in the other.

The sign at the top of the hill showed that I wasn't far from the Brent Reservoir where I thought on such a lovely day it would make a great place for a picnic.

The Welsh Harp (Brent reservoir) provides an attractive recreational centre as well as being a valuable habitat for wildlife and plants within a very urban part of North west London. The reservoir has one of the country's largest colonies of great crested grebes. The reservoir was created in 1837 by damming and flooding the valleys of the River Brent and Silk Stream. Its function was to provide a water supply for the Grand Union Canal.

 A coaching inn on the site of a ford in the river Brent where it crossed the Edgware Road existed for many centuries. The 'Old Welch Harp' was reconstructed around 1859 and for the next 40 years turned the Welsh Harp into a fashionable resort. Attached to the inn was a dining hall that seated 300 for dinner and 500 for concerts. Popular Music Hall entertainment added to the fame of the inn. The inn contained a museum, beast and fish mostly caught in the local area. 

The site became very popular in Victorian times for day trippers from London who came by train to enjoy the water, the racecourse, pleasure gardens, museum and the Welsh harp public house. Today the site has diverse wildlife especially the water birds within a relatively wild setting and is used for a wide variety of water based activities.

I think I must have walked in the wrong direction around the reservoir as I found nowhere suitable to sit down with brambles and shrubs kissing the edge of the water.

It did look beautiful though watching the dinghies sailing across the water.

Eventually I left the reservoir when I saw a sign for a garden centre. There's always a cafe there and toilet and I wasn't disappointed. 

I had a cup of tea and sit down whilst I reflected on a surprisingly pleasant day's walking.