I Love Pitshanger Park!

I never really stopped to think how much I used Pitshanger Park in Ealing. It is about 400 meters away from my front door so it's sort of a part of an almost a daily routine. Sure I am not the foursquare mayor anymore but I was for a considerable amount of time! I tell you what, the more folks that play foursquare the more diluted my mayoralship pool has become! ;-)

I used the park for jogging, although that is limited now. Nowadays its mainly a daily walk through the park with Peter and Mon. It is such a little oasis of calm in amongst all the mayhem. Not that Pitshanger, or Ealing for that matter, is particularly chaotic! Given the park is nestled rather close to the ever busy A40 it's amazing that the traffic noise doesn't interrupt the serenity. I guess you can't stop progress ;-). Myself and Mon have trained ourselves such, that whenever we hear the traffic noise all we think about are waves crashing on a beach. Whenever we are down in the park during a particularly noisy peak hour we just assume that the seas are rough and the waves are really pounding the beach!

One of the things that I truly love about the park is the community spirit there. This doesn't necessarily mean that every time you go there that you bump into folks that you know, who are hosting a sing-a-long event by a campfire. Although the annual Party In The Park is pretty much well a large scale version of that! What I really mean is that the community use the park, appreciate the park and tend to respect that everyone is entitled to use the park and that it doesn't merely exist for their benefit.

To understand this a little better I look back to where we used to live in Islington, near Highbury Fields. Another fantastic London park that as soon as the sun hits, is rammed to the rafters with folks enjoying the heat. The trouble with Highbury Fields though is the morning after effect. Highbury Fields was always packed on sunny days, with good cause. Sitting in the sun and enjoying one of London's many great parks is a fantastic experience. However after the event the place always resembles a war zone. So much rubbish is left behind at the end of a sunny day it is almost unbelieveable. I was always horrified at the litter left behind. To me littering is the lowest form of vandalism so I used to get infuriated. Especially the sheer volume of the problem.

In Pitshanger, sure it's London so there is always a little rubbish left behind, but typically, people use the park and appreciate it. They realise other people also use the park and the majority of folks clean up after themselves when they leave. I think one of the reasons this happens is because the folks that use the park live in the surrounding community and don't particularly like living in the presence of a rubbish dump. When it comes to Highbury Fields though, most of the people who use that park, due to it being closer to the city, are weekend tourists. They don't wake up to the rubbish so they don't care. To be fair on Islington Council, they did clean up the park very quickly, even on Sunday mornings, but why on earth should they have to? The amount of littering in London is absolutely disgraceful and I really feel its due to an attitude of 'It's not my backyard so who cares'.

Glad to say though, that so far I have not seen this attitude in Pitshanger Park, which is precisely why I think it has more of a community feel to the park. This, along with the park itself, I really love.

Another benefit, of almost daily wanders through the park, is, just like with the garden, I have been able to watch it evolve through the seasons! I just love this. Having watched the place bloom back into life this Spring has been an absolute joy. I have included some pictures that I have taken over the past 12 months we have lived in the Pitshanger area. It has been a fantastic year for many reasons. Being able to enjoy Pitshanger Park is just scratching the surface! Hope you can see from the photos why Pitshanger Park is such an appealing place! Another beautiful park in London.

Autumn In Pitshanger Park





Winter In Pitshanger Park







and Spring in Pitshanger Park









Hope you enjoy some of the photos, and if you get the chance hope you get to try out and enjoy Pitshanger Park! Feel free, the more the merrier and there's room for everyone ;-)

Have fun

Cheers

m